The stock markets closed in the red on Friday after opening on a negative note tracking weakness in the Asian zone. Towards the noon session the markets did recover to trade in the green but could not make a major upside and remained sideways to close the day’s trade on a flat note.
The Nifty was down 0.02 per cent or 1 point to close at 4,921 while the Sensex fell by 0.03 per cent or 5 points and closed at 16,218.
Mr Alex K. Mathews, Head, Technical and Derivatives Research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services, said: “We saw buying in metal, capital goods, realty, PSU, banking and power while FMCG, consumer durables, healthcare and oil lost ground.
Metal stocks gained today as metal prices moved up on LME while the oil marketing companies gave up some gains today on the back of reports that the EGoM meet to decide upon raising of diesel, kerosene and LPG price may not happen today.”
“Rupee today gained against dollar and even moved above 55.5 due to strength seen in the equities market. The markets held strong as there were news that the petrol price hike may be rolled back partially and the proposed diesel and LPG price hike may be postponed. The ruling government came under extreme pressure from the opposition and even its allies to come out with a positive decision as the common man is struggling to meet the ends,” he added.
Volatility was down, with the India Vix closing almost 1.37 per cent up at 25.14.
GAIL, JP Associates, Tata Steel, Cairn and SBI were the top Nifty gainers while Jindal Steel, Maruti, M&M, Bank of Baroda and PowerGrid were the losers on the Nifty.