Sensex, Nifty close flat amid volatile session; CG Power locks in at upper circuit, Deepak Nitrite tumbles by five per cent

Ending the week, domestic benchmark indices closed flat with a positive bias on Friday, as Sensex gained by a mere 0.04 per cent or 15.12 points to settle at 38,040.57 while Nifty rose by 0.12 per cent or by 13.90 points to reach the level of 11,214.05.

A large list of stocks saw their circuit filters revised today. Shares of CG Power and Industrial Solutions locked in at upper circuits on BSE after the company announced that its board has approved the execution of a securities subscription agreement (SSA) with Tube Investments of India for the issuance and allotment of securities to it on a preferential basis. Post the announcement, the stock of Tube Investments zoomed by 6.15 per cent.

Mindspace Parks REIT listed at nearly 11 per cent premium over issue price of Rs 275, thus making a decent stock market debut on Friday, as the scrip got listed at Rs 304 on BSE.

On the global front, Asian indices such as Shanghai index, Hang Seng and Nikkei closed in red, down by 0.96 per cent, 1.60 per cent and 0.39 per cent respectively whereas KOSPI gained by 0.39 per cent. In European markets, FTSE 100 and CAC 40 were seen trading in the negative territory, down by 0.057 per cent and 0.34 per cent respectively whereas DAX was trading up by 0.053 per cent.

Tracking trends in global markets and increasing worries about the ongoing spread of the COVID-19 outbreak, gold prices reached another peak on Friday as gold futures on MCX were up by 0.39 per cent or Rs 220 at Rs 56,065 per 10 grams thus, hovering at a fresh record high. Silver also jumped to record highs crossing the Rs 77,000 level. It is a general belief that the yellow metal tends to gain when interest rates are low and political and economic uncertainties are high.

In the Sensex basket, winners included Asian Paints rallying by 4.44 per cent, Bajaj Finance increasing by 3.61 per cent, IndusInd Bank rising by 2.90 per cent, Bajaj Finserv gaining by 2.80 per cent, Maruti Suzuki up by 1.84 per cent, Bharti Airtel up by 0.92 per cent, ONGC rising by 0.90 per cent, etc. Sensex draggers consisted of Titan Company falling by 2.65 per cent, HCL Technologies dropping by 2.22 per cent, Infosys dipping by 1.90 per cent, Mahindra & Mahindra declining by 1.47 per cent, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries