Tata Steel was the top gainer among the Sensex constituents.
Equity benchmarks hit new lifetime highs on Friday but ended with minor losses, breaking their three-session winning streak as investors turned RIL, metals and IT stocks higher.
After losing 866 points in the day, the 30-share BSE Sensex closed 125.27 points or 0.21% lower at 59,015.89. It had reached a high of 59,737.32 in the morning session.
Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty slipped 44.35 points or 0.25% to end at 17,585.15 after touching an intra-day record of 17,792.95.
Tata Steel was the top gainer among Sensex constituents, falling 3.57%, followed by SBI, TCS, HUL, Reliance Industries, Sun Pharma and ICICI Bank.
In contrast, Kotak Bank, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, Maruti, Nestle India and Bajaj Finserv were among the major winners, rising up to 5.26%.
The Sensex rose 710 points or 1.21% during the week, while the Nifty rose 215.90 points or 1.24%.
S Ranganathan, Head, S Ranganathan said, “Vaccination pace and encouraging export data helped bulls approach 60K amidst rebalancing of inflows from FTSE and MSCI, taking advantage ahead of the outcome of the GST Council meeting. All the benefits are gone.” Research at LKP Securities.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services, said despite a strong opening, domestic indices gave up early gains to flat trade, driven by profit-booking and mixed global sentiments.
“PSU banks were heavily hit by profit-booking, though the government approved ₹30,600 crore guarantee to National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd., aimed at clearing stressed assets from the banking sector. Global markets have hit the Fed Reserve and banks. Traded cautiously for the Bank of England policy meetings next week,” he said.
Sector-wise, BSE Metal, Realty, Basic Materials, Energy, Power and Utilities indices fell up to 2.49%, while Bankex, Telecom, Finance and Auto closed higher.
BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices fell up to 1.14%.
World stocks remained in positive territory despite concerns over the fate of Chinese real estate major Evergrande and its impact on the country’s financial system.
Elsewhere in Asia, shares ended higher in Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong.
European shares were also trading on a positive note in the afternoon session.
Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude slipped 0.54% to $75.26 a barrel.
The rupee on Friday closed 4 paise higher at 73.48 against the US dollar, tracking weakness in the US currency in the overseas market.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital markets on Thursday as they bought shares worth Rs 1,621.88 crore, according to exchange data.
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