The equity markets snapped their three-day winning streak on Friday as investors booked profits. The markets also witnessed some panic selling due to curbs being imposed across the country owing to the rising Covid cases, said market participants. Technology stocks emerged as defensives in an otherwise volatile session on Friday.
The BSE Sensex closed lower by 190.97 points or 0.3% at 57,124.31. The Nifty-50 fell 68.85 points or 0.4% to 17,003.75. NTPC was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding 2.6% at the close. Kotak Mahindra, UltraTech Cement, Axis Bank, M&M and Power Grid Corp were other losers, declining up to 2.4%.
However, technology stocks witnessed healthy buying interest on Friday. Shares of HCL Tech surged 3.08% whereas Tech Mahindra gained 2.3%. Asian Paints, Wipro and Infosys were other top gainers.
“The Nifty fell by 246 points from its day’s high. However, it managed to recover some of its losses and close just above 17,000 levels. On the sectorial front, except for IT (+1%), all other indices ended in the red with oil & gas, realty, PSU bank and auto down more than 1%,” said Siddhartha Khemka, head – retail research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services.
Sectorally, except for IT, all others sectors ended in the red. Nifty auto, pharma, PSU bank, and realty declined more than 1% each. The broader markets also fell in line with the headline indices. The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices fell 1.1% and 0.6%, respectively.
Foreign portfolio investors continued to offload shares in the equity markets. FPIs sold shares worth Rs 271.59 crore on Thursday. However, outflows have slowed down comparatively in the last few sessions. “FII selling has reduced sharply over the last few days due to festive holidays. After around 10% correction, Nifty is now trading at 19x FY23 P/E and is no longer in the expensive zone,” said Khemka.
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