The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty ended the day with marginal gains after oscillating between gains and losses. The 30-share index settled 38.43 points up at 27865.96, while the 50-share index settled 19.90 points up at 8611.15. Among the Nifty 50 index, 28 stocks settled the day in green with Aurobindo Pharma climbing 3.85 per cent, followed by Bank of Baroda (up 3.58 per cent), Grasim (up 3.11 per cent), Mahindra & Mahindra (up 2.90 per cent) and GAIL (up 2.90 per cent). On the other hand, Cipla, Tech Mahindra, Coal India, ITC and Ambuja Cement slipped 3.84 per cent, 1.52 per cent, 1.42 per cent, 1.38 per cent and 1.10 per cent, respectively.
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Except the BSE FMCG index (down 0.14 per cent), all other sectoral indices ended the day with gains. The BSE Realty index, BSE Oil & Gas, BSE Auto, BSE Metal and BSE Power index gained 3.16 per cent, 1.70 per cent, 1.34 per cent, 1.18 per cent and 1.16 per cent, respectively.
Jayant Manglik, president, retail distribution, Religare Securities said, “Nifty recovered marginally on Friday and settled above 8,600 amid mixed domestic and global cues. After Thursday’s knee-jerk reaction, participants were in cautious mood but hopes of rate cut by the RBI in upcoming policy meet, eased some pressure and triggered recovery in rate sensitive pack. Also, report that Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has decided to invest 10 per cent of its annual incremental deposits or an estimated Rs 13,000 crore in the current fiscal in equity exchange traded funds (ETFs), aided to the recovery.”
Other Asian peers closed mostly lower on Friday on rising worries about the European banking system that hit financial shares and as oil prices inched back from near-one month highs on scepticism over OPEC’s new plan to curb output. Hang Seng and Nikkei closed lower by 1.86 per cent and 1.46 per cent, respectively.
