PSU banks extended Thursday's gains, with the Nifty PSU Bank index rising 0.9 percent. PNB, Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India and Union Bank gained 1-5 percent but SBI ended flat.
Benchmark indices ended rangebound session on a flat note Friday amid the trade standoff between world's largest economies US and China. Investors after digesting RBI policy await March quarter earnings that will start next week.
The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 30.17 points at 33,626.97 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 6.40 points to 10,331.60 while both benchmark indices rallied 2 percent each for the week.
Experts expect the consolidation to continue for couple of weeks as investors will focus their shift to earnings from trade war.
"The valuations now have become reasonable compared to levels what we were trading back in November 2017 and December 2017. We believe the all the negatives have been priced in although do not rule out intermediate corrections," Akash Jain, Vice President Equity (Research) at Ajcon Global Services said in an interview to Moneycontrol.
He advises investors to be stock specific and consider companies with good earnings visibility at a decent valuation as going ahead he believes Q4FY18 earnings season would be good. "corporate earnings should witness a CAGR OF 15 percent over the next two years and that should make the current valuations cheap on forward earnings."
The broader markets outperformed frontliners, with the Nifty Midcap index rising half a percent on positive breadth. About three shares advanced for every share falling on the BSE.
Back home, European markets were lower, as an escalating trade standoff between the world's biggest economies US and China rattled investors. France's CAC and Germany's DAX were down half a percent each while Britain's FTSE was down 0.14 percent at the time of writing this article.
Asian stocks closed mixed, as the overnight rally on Wall Street failed to translate after President Donald Trump ordered US trade officials to consider tariffs on USD 100 billion more of imports from China. Japan's Nikkei closed down 0.4 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.11 percent.
Back home, Lupin was the biggest gainer, rising 3 percent after getting establishment inspection report for Pithampur Unit-I from the US Food and Drug Administration. The Nifty Pharma index was up 1.4 percent.
PSU banks extended Thursday's gains, with the Nifty PSU Bank index rising 0.9 percent. PNB, Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank, Bank of Baroda, Bank of India and Union Bank gained 1-5 percent but SBI ended flat.
Titan Company, BPCL, HPCL, Bajaj Finance, Tata Steel and Sun Pharma were biggest gainers among Nifty50 stocks, rising 1-3 percent followed by ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, ITC and Reliance Industries.
Infosys, Vedanta, L&T, Bharti Airtel, HCL Technologies, IndusInd Bank, Grasim and Axis Bank were under pressure, falling 0.5-2 percent.
Reliance Communications gained 4 percent as the company is allowed to proceed with full asset monetisation.
Amtek Auto was up 5 percent after the Committee of Creditors approved resolution plan of Liberty House while Sobha rallied 8 percent on strong sales growth in March quarter and FY18.
Jubilant Foodworks, Havells India, Petronet LNG, South Indian Bank, Karnataka Bank, KPIT Technologies, M&M Financial, United Spirits, United Breweries, GLobus Spirits, STC, Shakti Pumps, Roto Pumps, Jaiprakash Associates, Alok Industries and GVK Power rallied up to 11 percent. Delta Corp and Kwality were down 2-3 percent.