Mumbai: Equity indices surrendered mid-session gains to close lower for the third day in a row on Friday as participants remained cautious amid geopolitical uncertainties in eastern Europe. Persistent selling by foreign investors and expectations of policy tightening by global central banks kept sentiment muted, traders said. After swinging about 700 points between gains and losses, the BSE Sensex finally closed 59.04 points or 0.10 per cent lower at 57,832.97.
On similar lines, the NSE Nifty edged lower by 28.30 points or 0.16 per cent to settle at 17,276.30. The Sensex was dragged lower by mainly Ultratech Cement, M&M, Infosys, Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finance and Nestle -- dropping as much as 1.88 per cent. In contrast, HDFC topped the gainers' chart with a jump of 1.25 per cent, followed by L&T, Axis Bank, SBI, Dr Reddy's, Kotak Bank and HDFC Bank. On the index, 17 shares closed in the negative zone.
"...market opened low taking cues from yesterday's sell-off in Wall Street following the release of FOMC meeting minutes. Reports that the US Secretary of State agreed to meet the Russian foreign minister in order to ease tension helped the domestic market to wipe-off early losses though sell-off was seen in late hours. "As current global cues are forcing global equities to remain unstable, the domestic market is also expected to continue its volatile trend in the coming days," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services. On a weekly basis, the Sensex lost 319.95 points or 0.55 per cent and the Nifty fell 98.45 points or 0.56 per cent.
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"While the uncertainty related to Fed action, and the increasing expectations of a 50 bps rate hike in the March policy amidst a persistently high inflation print, has been plaguing the markets, the recent geo-political standoff between Russia and Ukraine has further accentuated the uncertainty and led to a risk-off environment. "The fall-out of these in the form of rising crude oil prices and strength in the USD is clearly weighing on the market sentiment, whilst FIIs continue to be strong sellers in the secondary markets," said Milind Muchhala, Executive Director, Julius Baer, India.
Sectorally, realty, oil and gas, basic materials, healthcare and energy indices were major the losers -- dropping as much as 1.23 per cent on Friday. Of the 19 sectoral indices, 16 closed in the red. Broader smallcap, midcap and largecap indices fell up to 0.80 per cent. Asian markets were mixed as investors weighed renewed US warnings of an imminent Russian attack on Ukraine. However, bourses in Europe were trading modestly higher in the afternoon session.
Crude oil benchmark Brent futures dropped 2.19 per cent to trade at 90.93 per barrel. The rupee appreciated by 40 paise to 74.66 against the US dollar on Friday. Foreign institutional investors offloaded shares worth a net Rs 1,242.10 crore in the Indian capital markets on Thursday, exchange data showed.
PTI
