The Sensex and Nifty edged higher in a choppy trade on Friday, recovering from heavy losses suffered in the previous session after India said it had conducted “surgical strikes” on suspected militants preparing to infiltrate from Pakistan-ruled Kashmir.
The NSE and the BSE indexes, however, posted their biggest weekly falls since February. They also fell about 2 per cent each in September, posting its first monthly loss in six months.
The broader NSE index ended up 19.9 points or 0.23 per cent at 8,611.15, but fell 2.5 per cent for the week.
The benchmark BSE index closed 38.43 points or 0.14 per cent higher at 27,865.96, but lost 2.8 per cent for the week.
Among BSE sectoral indices, realty index gained the most by 3.16 per cent, oil & gas 1.7 per cent, infrastructure 1.58 per cent and auto 1.34 per cent, while FMCG index was down 0.14 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were M&M (+3.06%), GAIL (+3.06%), ONGC (+2.19%), Tata Steel (+1.78%) and Tata Motors (+1.62%), while the major losers were Cipla (-3.44%), ITC (-1.63%), Coal India (-1.45%), HUL (-1.12%) and Dr Reddy's (-0.9%).
Investors turned cautious a day after India said it had conducted “surgical strikes” on suspected militants preparing to infiltrate from Pakistan-ruled Kashmir.
Global shares slumped on worries about the health of Deutsche Bank and as oil prices pulled back from near-one month highs on scepticism over OPEC's new plan to curb output.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell more than 1 per cent, while Wall Street too lost about a per cent on Thursday.
Indian officials had said on Thursday elite troops crossed into Pakistan-ruled Kashmir and killed suspected militants preparing to infiltrate and carry out attacks on major cities, in a surprise raid that raised tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals.
Share markets in India and Pakistan fell after news of the raid on Thursday, with India's NSE index falling as much 2.1 per cent to its lowest since August 29, while Pakistan's benchmark 100-share index dropped as much as 0.5 per cent.
“The market will need some time to digest this problem...and it will wait and watch for a few days,” said Vinod Nair, head of research with Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Securities