Closing Bell: Sensex slips 465 points, Nifty under 25,800; Eternal leads fall, BEL as top gainer

The Indian equity markets closed the week mauled by bearish trends, as the market mood lacked significant cues that would have fueled the investor sentiment. Even global markets ended mixed, further deviating the markets from an upward trend. The Sensex closed Friday’s session at 83,938.71, declining 465.75 points or 0.55%, while the Nifty50 dropped by 0.60%, to 25,722.10.

Dragging the bourses were Eternal, NTPC and Cipla, each declining by 3.45%, 2.52% and 2.51% respectively. Whereas stocks of Bharat electronics soared by nearly 4%, Eicher Motors by 1.81%, and Shriram Finance by 1.78%. The positive movement was due to strong Q2 performance reported by the companies.

Sectoral-wise, PSU banks saw a surge, as Sebi provided new rules for Bank Nifty, which includes the requirement that the sectoral index to have minimum 14 constituents as against the current 12. Sebi also added that the weight of the top constituents will now be capped at 20% as against 33% currently and the combined weight of the top three constituents cannot exceed 45% compared to current total of 62%.

Cheering the news, shares of Union Bank of India soared 4.24%, Canara Bank rose by 2.86%, Punjab National Bank by 2.30%. Opposing that, Nifty Bank declined 0.4%, maintaining the negative streak. Kotak Mahindra Bank. HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank were the top laggards in the Nifty Bank sector. Nifty Media and Nifty Metal bled, declining up to 1.32%.

The other sector to end in the green in the otherwise bearish market was Nifty Oil and Gas, with Indian Oil and Hindustan Petroleum rising by nearly 1.75%.

In broader markets, the Midcap index declined 0.45%, while the Small-cap index fell 0.48%, while the India VIX remained neutral, rising marginally by 0.70%.

Analysts at Bajaj Broking Research attributed the decline in Indian equities to profit booking, as all the positive domestic cues have already been priced in. “Meanwhile, the Trump–Xi summit yielded merely a short-lived pause in the U.S.–China trade tensions, providing little reassurance to investors and maintaining a cloud of macroeconomic uncertainty,” said the note.