Mumbai: Equities struggled on uncertainty in a largely lacklustre volatile trading week, the BSE Sensex declined 95.21 points to close at 34,046.94 and the broader Nifty slipped 32.70 points to finish at 10,458.35.
The truncated week saw the selling pressure loomed the key indices despite robust quarterly GDP data, which was duly sidelined.
Investors were looking for clear direction as the trading momentum marred by worries on overshooting of fiscal deficit target, hawkish US Fed rate hike views in the midst of revelation of more public-sector bank frauds.
The country’s GDP recorded a five-quarter high growth of 7.2 per cent in the October-December on good showing by key sectors like agriculture, construction and manufacturing.
The market got of on strong start lifted by positive global market only to turn volatile for rest all other three sessions with PSU Bank continued to bore brunt on fresh disclosures by scam-hit Punjab National Bank (PNB) along with HealthCare and Metal indices buckling under selling pressure.
The market remained closed on Friday on account of ‘Holi’.
The Sensex started the week higher at 34,225.72 and hovered between 34,610.79 and 34,015.79, it closed the week at 34,046.94, showing a modest loss of 95.21 or 0.28 per cent.
(The Sensex ended gained 131.39 points last week).
The Nifty also resumed the week up at 10,526.55 and traded between 10,631.65 and 10,447.15 before ending the week at 10,458.35, showing a loss of 32.70 points, or 0.31 per cent.
Selling was led by Metal, Banks, HealthCare, PSUs, IT, Teck, FMCG and Power sectors. While Buying witnessed in Auto, Oil and Gas, Capital Goods, Realty and Consumer Durables counters.
The Broader midcap saw substantial selling activity, while smallcap shares saw miniscule selling.
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) and foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 3,466.77 crore during the week, as per Sebi’s record including the provisional figure of March 01, 2018.
The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.56 points to settle at 16,562.59. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index gained 131.71 points or 0.73 per cent to settle at 18,127.93. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.
Among sectoral and industry indices, auto rose by 2.02 per cent followed by oil and gas 0.90 per cent, capital goods 0.72 per cent, realty 0.54 per cent, consumer durables 0.32 per cent and IPO 0.04 per cent, while metal fell by 1.94 per cent, bankex 1.62 per cent, healthcare 1.36 per cent, IT 0.52 per cent, teck 0.48 per cent and FMCG 0.45 per cent.
Among the 31-share Sensex pack, 19 stocks rose and remaining 12 stocks fell during the week. IndusInd Bank rose 3.31 per cent.
The bank announced its partnership with Ripple, the enterprise blockchain solution for global payments, to facilitate payments into and out of India. Auto major Tata Motors rose 2.89 per cent. The company reported robust sales performance for the month of February 2018.
Tata Motors registered a growth of 38 per cent year-on-year at 58,993 units in February 2018 due to continued strong sales performance of its commercial and passenger vehicles business in the domestic market. Exports declined 3 per cent at 4,768 units.
It was followed by Dr Reddy 2.71 per cent, Hero Motoco 2.41 per cent, Power Grid 2.15 per cent, Tata Motors DVR 1.96 per cent, Maruti 1.96 per cent and M&M 1.90 per cent.
However, Sun Pharma fell by 6.26 per cent, ICICI Bank 5.00 per cent, SBI 4.91 per cent, Axis Bank 1.95 per cent, TCS 1.29 per cent, Yes Bank 0.88 per cent, HDFC 0.54 per cent and Wipro 0.44 per cent.
The total turnover during the week on BSE eased to Rs 13,895.41 crs as against last weekend’s level of Rs 18,463.07 crores and NSE moved down to 1,21,278.51 crores compared to Rs 1,53,562.39 crores previously.
PTI