Sensex dips for 3rd day, slips 59 pts; Ambuja Cement falls 6%, HDFC up 1%

The volatile streak in the markets extended into a third straight day on Friday as investors continued to be on edge about the ongoing tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended an extremely choppy day 54 points, or 0.1 per cent, lower at 57,833 levels, while the Nifty50 shut shop at 17,276, down 28 points or 0.16 per cent.

Reliance Industries, Infosys, Ultratech Cement, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, and M&M were the major drags on the Sensex today, accounting for most of the losses. This downside was capped by gains in HDFC twins, L&T, TCS, and Axis Bank.

In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices shed 0.8 per cent each with individual stocks, including Gland Pharma, Honeywell Automation, Astral Ltd, Hindustan Media Ventures, Asian Energy Services, and Unichem Labs cracking between 4 per cent and 8 per cent.

On the sectoral front, key indices ended in the negative zone led by the Nifty Realty index (down 1.2 per cent) and the Nifty Pharma index (down 0.8 per cent). On the upside, the Nifty Bank and Financial Serbices indices managed to close 0.2 per cent higher each.

Global markets

European markets were muted on Friday, with global sentiment hanging in the balance as the Ukraine-Russia crisis reaches a pivotal moment. The pan-European Stoxx 600 hovered just above the flatline in early trade, with food and beverage stocks adding 0.8 per cent while travel and leisure stocks fell 0.8 per cent.

Futures linked to main US stock indices were up in the range of 0.3 per cent to 0.6 per cent.

Earlier in Asia, Japan's Nikkei fell 0.4 per cent, South Korea's Kospi added 0.02 per cent, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng skid 1.8 per cent.