Sensex off record high to end flat; RIL dazzles

Mumbai: The benchmark Sensex came down from record high to end 9 points lower in range-bound trade Friday, wrapping up the week with a gain of 439.02 points on smooth GST implementation and an above normal monsoon so far.

The market was pulled down by negative European and Asian peers as concerns mounted that the central banks are moving closer to removing the monetary stimulus that was further roiled by weakness in oil prices.

In step with the BSE, the 50-scrip NSE Nifty fell by 8.75 points, or 0.09 percent, to close at 9,665.80 after shuttling between 9,684.25 and 9,642.65.

During the week, the Sensex registered a rise of 439.02 points, or 1.41 percent, while the Nifty added 144.90 points, or 1.52 percent.

Stocks of heavyweight Reliance Industries Ltd soared 3.43 percent to trade at over nine-year high of Rs 1,490.80 on expectations that its subsidiary Reliance Jio is likely to launch the much awaited 4G VoLTE feature phone soon amid expectations of robust Q1 earnings to be released this month, which kept the Sensex fall under check.

Lupin Ltd too rallied 3.28 percent to Rs 1,116.75.

"Buoyed sentiment in the domestic market slowed due to a caution which prevailed ahead of US jobs data and concerns over tighter monetary policy in Europe. On the other hand, investors gave attention to pharma stocks as part of value buying which supports the market to recover from intra-day low," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services Ltd said.

The 30-share Sensex, which had closed at a record high of 31,369.34 yesterday, retreated to stay in the negative terrain for the better part of the session and hit a low of 31,286.62, before settling at 31,360.63, down 8.71 points or 0.03 percent.

It had gained 159.55 points back-to-back in the previous two sessions and hit record closing high yesterday.

Investors remained cautious ahead of the quarterly earnings numbers, which are due later this month.

In the Sensex kitty, 20 scrips ended lower while 11 closed higher.

Major losers were ICICI Bank 1.28 percent, Axis Bank 1.25 percent, Infosys 1.21 percent, Asian Paint 1.20 percent, Hero MotoCorp 1.11 percent, HDFC Ltd 1.10 percent, ONGC 1.08 percent, Bajaj Auto 0.79 percent, ITC Ltd 0.79 percent, Maruti 0.66 percent and TCS 0.54 percent.

Among sectoral indices, IT dropped by 0.73 percent, followed by teck 0.52 percent, consumer durables 0.37 percent, FMCG 0.36 percent, bank 0.25 percent and auto 0.17 percent, while realty rose by 1.48 percent, healthcare 1.03 percent, oil&gas 0.44 percent and capital goods 0.15 percent.

The BSE mid-cap index fell 0.04 per cent while small-cap index rose 0.26 percent.

Meanwhile, Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 15.29 crore crore yesterday, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Domestic institutional investors (DIIs) had bought shares worth a net Rs 315.95 crore.

Overseas, key indices in Europe like Paris, Frankfurt and London were trading lower in early trade.

Most Asian stocks dropped following the lower close on Wall Street yesterday. Japan's Nikkei fell 0.32 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended 0.49 percent down. In mainland China, the Shanghai Composite Index, however, settled higher by 0.17 percent.