Buying in information technology shares like Infosys, HCL Technologies, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services helped benchmarks stage partial recovery
The Indian equity benchmarks snapped their three-day winning streak on Friday dragged by losses in index heavyweights like HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Larsen & Toubro and State Bank of India. The Sensex fell as much as 502 points and Nifty touched an intraday low of 16,910. However, buying in information technology shares like Infosys, HCL Technologies, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services helped benchmarks stage partial recovery during the session.
The Sensex ended 191 points lower at 57,124 and Nifty 50 index declined 69 points to close at 17,004.
Traders booked profits after a three day up move ahead of the weekend amid imposition of night curfews in many parts of the country to control the spread of Omicron variant of the Coronavirus, analysts said.
Selling pressure was broad-based as all the 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchnage, barring the measure of information technology shares, ended lower led by the Nifty PSU Bank index's nearly 2 per cent decline. Nifty Bank, Auto, Financial Services, Pharma, Private Bank, Realty, Healthcare and Oil & Gas indices also dropped around 1 per cent.
Mid- and small-cap shares also faced selling pressure as Nifty Midcap 100 index dropped 1 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index fell 0.53 per cent.
Data Patterns shares made a blockbuster stock market debut. The stock opened for trading at Rs 856 on the National Stock Exchange, marking an upside of 46 per cent from its issue price of Rs 585 per share. On the BSE, Data Patterns shares opened for trading at Rs 864, up 48 per cent from its IPO price.
Shares of L&T Finance Holdings slumped as much as 7 per cent to hit an intraday low of Rs 76.85 after it sold its entire stake in its wholly owned subsidiary L&T Investment Management Limited, the investment manager of L&T Mutual Fund to HSBC Asset Management (India) Private Limited for an aggregate consideration of $425 million.
Grasim Industries was top Nifty loser, the stock fell nearly 3 per cent to close at Rs 1,611. NTPC, Eicher Motors, ONGC, Mahindra & Mahindra, Indian Oil, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Power Grid, Dr Reddy's Labs, Adani Ports, HDFC, Ultratech Cement, Bharat Petroleum and Maruti Suzuki also fell between 1.3-2.5 per cent.
On the flipside, HCL Technologies, SBI Life, Asian Paints, Wipro, Infosys, ITC, TCS and Reliance Industries were among the gainers in the Nifty 50 basket of shares.
The overall market breadth was negative as 1,751 shares ended lower while 1,573 closed higher on the BSE.