Sensex, Nifty close flat; Future Retail locks in at upper circuit, Bayer Cropscience gains by 4 per cent

On Friday, the domestic benchmark indices saw volatility during the week’s last trading session. Sensex and Nifty closed flat with a positive bias. Sensex edged up by a mere 0.04 per cent or 14.23 points to settle at 38,854.55 while Nifty gained by 0.13 per cent or 15.20 points to close at 11,464.45.

On the global front, Asian indices such as Shanghai index, Hang Seng and Nikkei gained by 0.79 per cent, 0.78 per cent and 0.74 per cent, respectively while KOSPI closed flat. European indices such as DAX and CAC 40 were trading down by 0.45 per cent and 0.29 per cent, respectively whereas FTSE 100 was trading in the green, up by 0.25 per cent. The shares in the European markets struggled to keep up with the gaining momentum while a fall in the US tech share kept investors on edge.

Weak global cues, the adverse news flow of COVID-19 vaccines trials along with an increase in India-China tensions as well as a rise in fresh Coronavirus cases has made the investors extremely cautious.

Sensex gainers consisted of SBI, which went up by 2.30 per cent, TCS rose by 1.81 per cent, Tech Mahindra gained by 1.76 per cent, HUL up by 1.19 per cent, Bajaj Finance rose by 1.03 per cent, Kotak Mahindra Bank increased by 0.97 per cent, etc.

Sensex losers included IndusInd Bank that went down by 1.71 per cent, Power Grid decreased by 1.52 per cent, Bharti Airtel fell by 1.19 per cent, Asian Paints declined by 1.11 per cent, HDFC Bank decreased by 1.11 per cent, ITC fell by 0.57 per cent, etc.

Amongst sectoral indices on BSE, the Realty index was the biggest gainer, up by 1.31 per cent, followed by the IT index and Consumer Durables index that gained by 1.15 per cent and 0.87 per cent, respectively whereas BSE Telecom index closed in red, down by 0.97 per cent.

BSE Small-Cap index inched up by 0.52 per cent. The top small-cap index gainers were MM Forgings, Strides Pharma Science, Mastek, Datamatics Global Services, Max Ventures & Industries, etc.

BSE Mid-Cap index gained by 0.58 per cent wherein the top index gainers included Future Retail, Container Corporation of India, Indraprastha Gas, Bayer Cropscience, Balkrishna Industries, etc.