Closing Bell: Sensex and Nifty index ends in the red
Closing Bell: Sensex and Nifty index ends in the red, top gainers and losers
Indian stock markets opened lower on Friday amid negative global cues. The Nifty index opened at 17236.05 levels down by 68.55 points while Sensex made a negative opening of 403.62 points at 57488.39 levels. The key benchmark indices traded volatile in a narrow range on the last day of the week.
Indian Stock Market News
The domestic markets turned in the green in the afternoon session as the US secretary of state agreed to a meeting with Russia’s foreign minister, raising hopes of a solution to the ongoing tension over Ukraine. The meeting will be held next week provided Russia does not invade Ukraine. The market got additional support after FM Nirmala Sitharaman has urged multilateral financial institutions to increase funding, especially to low and middle-income countries to prepare them to deal with the pandemic situation in the future.
However, the upside of the market remain capped as Crisil Ratings in the report stated that since the introduction of new asset quality norms last November that bought in shadow banks and housing financiers on par with banks, housing finance companies’ gross bad loans have gone up by 70 bps even as their portfolio quality has improved.
On the global front, other major Asian markets closed mixed today tracking the negative cues from Wall Street overnight. Japan’s consumer price index fell in the month of January but at a slower pace as compared to the previous month. Investors are now concerned about the fresh geopolitical tension and the tightening of US monetary policy, European markets are trading mostly in the green as UK’s retail sales bounced back in January.
Indian stock market indices at the close
At the close, the Nifty index was down by 28.30 points or 0.16 percent and closed at 17276.30 levels while Sensex declined by 59.04 points or 0.10 percent and finished at 57832.97 levels. The Bank Nifty index closed higher by 67.5 points or 0.18 percent on spot and ended at 37599.15 levels.
The broader markets underperformed today, as the Nifty midcap closed lower and smallcap index closed almost 1 percent lower. The Nifty midcap index was down by 266.95 points or 0.91 percent and closed at 28934.35 levels. The Nifty smallcap index closed lower by 110.75 points or 1.06 percent and finished at 10331.05 levels.
Top Nifty Gainers and Losers
The top gainers in the Nifty 50 index were Coal India, SBI Life, HDFC, Bajaj Auto, and Larsen whereas the top losers were ONGC, Cipla, Divis Lab, Ultratech Cement, and Shree Cement.
The Nifty midcap gainers were Voltas, Varun Beverages, and Ipca Labs, and the losers were Adani Total Gas, Indiamart, and Godrej Ind.
The top gainers in the Nifty smallcap index were Quess Corp, Edelweiss, and India Cement and the losers were Dilip Buildcon, Firstsource Solution, and Shilpa
The most active stocks in the Nifty index in terms of value were TCS, Infosys, and HDFC. The most active stocks in terms of volume were Coal India, Tata Motors and SBI
On a sectoral front, barring banking and Financials all other sectors closed in the red today. The sector that dragged the markets were Realty, OIl & Gas, Pharma, Media, and Auto.
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Editorial desk
