Profit booking by investors along with fears of a resurgent US-China trade war pulled the key Indian equity indices lower on Friday afternoon.
The indices, however, had openend on a positive note extending the gains made on Thursday, but could not continue the bullish momentum. Investors booked profits as the indices rose over one per cent in the previous trading session.
At 1.30 p.m., the wider Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) traded at 10,704.75 points, down 31.40 points or 0.29 per cent from the previous close of 10,736.15 points.
Similarly, the barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE, which had opened at 35,373.98 points, traded at 35,271.72 points (1.32 p.m.) -- down 50.66 points or 0.14 per cent -- from its previous session's close of 35,322.38 points.
The Sensex has so far touched a high of 35,438.22 and a low of 35,205.83 points. The BSE market breadth was bearish with 1,872 declines against 635 advances so far.
The major gainers on the BSE were Bajaj Auto, Maruti Auto, Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp and Tata Motors (DVR) while ONGC, Power Grid, Adani Ports, IndusInd Bank and State Bank of India (SBI) were the major losers.
On the NSE, the top gainers were Bajaj Auto, Vedanta and Maruti Suzuki, while Eicher Motors, Power Grid and Gail lost the most.
--IANS
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