Equity benchmark indices closed flat on Friday after rising metal stocks wiped out early losses in a volatile trading session that saw heavy selling in auto and financial scrips.
Investors overall remained concerned about the economic fallout of coronavirus pandemic even as businesses and cities readied to open up after the countrywide lockdown is lifted in phases.
The fiscal measures announced by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to reduce risk aversion and improve liquidity did not have any major impact on market sentiment.
The BSE S&P Sensex closed 25 points or 0.08 per cent lower at 31,098 while the Nifty 50 edged lower by 6 points or 0.06 per cent at 9,137.
Except for Nifty metal which was up by 1.4 per cent, all sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the negative zone with Nifty PSU bank down by 1.7 per cent, private bank by 1.3 per cent, auto and pharma by 1 per cent each.
Auto major Mahindra & Mahindra suffered a loss of 4.6 per cent to close at Rs 381.85 per share while Hero MotoCorp tumbled by 2 per cent.
Private lenders Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank and ICICI Bank fell by 3.3 per cent, 2.3 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively. The other prominent losers were Bharti Infratel, UPL, Sun Pharma and Bajaj Finserv.
{{/usCountry}}Private lenders Axis Bank, IndusInd Bank and ICICI Bank fell by 3.3 per cent, 2.3 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively. The other prominent losers were Bharti Infratel, UPL, Sun Pharma and Bajaj Finserv.
{{/usCountry}}However, metal majors showed handsome gains with Vedanta ticking up by 3.7 per cent, Tata Steel by 1.6 per cent and Hindalco by 1.5 per cent.
Meanwhile, Asia’s stock markets struggled to gain as traders remained concerned about the possibility of a second wave of coronavirus infections across the globe.
Japan’s Nikkei was up by 0.62 per cent while South Korea’s Kospi ticked up by 0.12 per cent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dipped marginally by 0.14 per cent.