INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
NEW DELHI: Domestic equity market ended Friday's session on a flat note, snapping five-session winning streak, as gains in Reliance
Industries, HDFC duo, Infosys and Kotak Mahindra Bank were offset by losses in ITC, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and State Bank of India
The risk appetite received a blow by weak macro numbers released on Thursday that highlighted an uptick in headline inflation and a slump
in industrial production.
The retail inflation accelerated to a five-month high of 5 per cent in June compared with 4.87 per cent in May,
while industrial production fell to 3.2 per cent in May compared to 4.9 per cent in April.
Rising inflation is expected to trigger further
key rate hikes this fiscal by India's central bank
However, easing crude oil prices, firm global cues and rupee's improving health saved the market from witnessing a sharp fall today
Sensex closed 7 points, or 0.02 per cent, down at 36,542, while Nifty settled 4 points, or 0.04 per cent, down at 11,019.
Market breadth
remained negative with 812 stocks advancing on BSE, compared with 1,824 decliners
BSE Midcap and smallcap indices suffered more losses, falling up to 1.36 per cent.
For the week, Sensex rose by 2.48 per cent, while Nifty
climbed by 2.29 per cent.
The mixed bag of Sensex gainers included Bajaj Auto, Asian Paints and Coal India, whereas ONGC, Hero MotoCorp and
Bharti Airtel joined the pack of Sensex losers.
Most PSU bank stocks, including Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India and
Bank of Baroda suffered significant losses on Friday
IT stocks including Infosys, TCS and Wipro went home with gains
However, HCL Technologies dropped over 2 per cent on Friday following the announcement of its much-awaited share buyback.
The board of the
third-largest IT firm on Thursday approved a share buyback of up to Rs 4,000 crore, which is higher than Rs 3,500 crore offer it came out
Tata Steel settled with a mild gain of 0.33 per cent
The firm is planning to sell some of its businesses in South-East Asia as part of its strategy to exit non-scalable businesses and turn
focus to the domestic market, ET reported citing sources
Among the sectors, BSE Energy, IT and consumer durables settled with gains
European shares were in the green, underpinned by optimism around better earnings
Asian markets portrayed a mixed picture
Shanghai SE Composite Index closed with a loss of 0.23 per cent, but Hang Seng inched up by 0.16 per cent
Nikkei settled almost 2 per cent up