The Indian stock market ended marginally down on Friday, despite having opened on a fairly buoyant note and holding in positive territory for over three hours.
Asian markets ended mostly highr and major European markets got off to a slightly mixed start. With no big triggers from the home front too, investors tracked corporate news for direction.
The BSE benchmark Sensex, which rose more than 160 points in early trades to 29,584.34, declined to a low of 29,259.42 around mid afternoon and eventually ended the day with a loss of 57.09 points or 0.19% at 29,365.30. The Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange ended down 17 points or 0.19% at 9119.40, after scaling a high of 9183.65 and a low of 9088.75 intraday.
In the forex market, the rupee was trading at 64.60 against the U.S. dollar around late afternoon, down 4 paise from its previous close.
Realty stocks had a good outing. Telecom stocks were the other prominent gainers. IT, bank, automobile, capital goods, consumr durables, oil and power stocks ended on a mixed note, while FMCG and metal stocks were weak.
Among realty stocks, DLF gained 6.25%, Prestige Estates gained 3.8% and HDIL added 2.2%. Sobha and Indiabulls Real Estate ended higher by 1.5% and 1.2%, respectively. Godrej Properties and Unitech posted modest gains, while Oberoi Realty, Phoenix and Omaxe ended marginally down.
From the telecom space,ITI and Bharti Infratel ended stronger by 13% and 2.8%, respectively. Idea Cellular, MTNL, TTML and Reliance Communications posted modest gains, while Bharti Airtel (down 0.5%), Tata Communications (down 0.9%) and Sterlite Technologies (down 0.9%) ended weak.
FMCG stocks ITC (down 1.8%) and Hindustan Unilever (down 1%) declined. Marico, Godfrey Philips and Bajaj Corp also ended notably lower.
Sugar stocks posted impressive gains. Almost two third of sugar stocks ended the day with strong gains on reports that the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath met a delegation of the sugar mills to hear their grievances and assured them to provide facilities for facilitating fresh investments to expand capacity and build new factories in the state.
HDFC Bank ended 2.4% up after reporting an 18.25% increase in net profit in the March 2017 quarter, compared to year-ago quarter. Reliance Industries gained 2.3% following an announcement from the company that it is executing major projects in its energy and materials chain at Jamnagar covering Para-Xylene, Cracker complex along with downstream plants and Gasification. These projects will add significant value to Reliance’s Refining & Petrochemical business and enable Jamnagar complex to achieve energy self-sufficiency. The benefits of integration at the Jamnagar complex will set a new paradigm of scale and value addition in the Refining and Petrochemicals industry.
NTPC ended stronger by about 1.85%. Asian Paints, Larsen & Toubro, Hero Motcorp and ONGC edged up marginally.
Sun Pharmaceutical Industries ended lower by 2.4% on reports the USFDA, after inspecting the company's Dadra unit, has issued eleven observations. Cipla declined 1.8% and Adani Ports ended 1.7% down. Power Grid Corporation, Wipro, ICICI Bank, Lupin, Mahindra & Mahindra, Coal India, Maruti Suzuki, State Bank of India, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Steel and HDFC ended lower by 0.5% - 1.5%.
Bharti Infratel, up 3%, was the top gainer in the Nifty50 index. Tech Mahindra, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Hindalco, IndusInd Bank and Eicher Motors also ended on a firm note.
Bank of Baroda, Grasim Industries, Zee Entertainment Enterprises, ACC, Ambuja Cements, Bosch, Indian Oil Corporation, BPCL and UltraTech Cement ended with sharp to moderate losses.
Panacea Biotec and Spice Mobility saw strong buying on stock specific news.
The market breadth was even. Out of 3014 stocks traded on BSE, 1449 stocks advanced. 1422 stocks declined and 143 stocks ended flat.
