Markets pare early gains; Sensex, Nifty fall for 6th day

Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai. File
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Benchmark indices pared early gains and ended lower on Friday in line with weak trend in Asian markets and concerns that the U.S. Federal Reserve might raise interest rates further to curb inflation.

Fresh foreign fund outflows and selling pressure in HDFC twins also dented investor sentiments.

The BSE Sensex declined 141.87 points or 0.24% to settle at 59,463.93 despite a firm start. During the day, it fell 280.46 points or 0.47% to 59,325.34.

The NSE Nifty dipped 45.45 points or 0.26% to end at 17,465.80.

In the Sensex pack, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Maruti, Larsen & Toubro, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Tech Mahindra and Bharti Airtel were the major laggards.

Asian Paints, Bajaj Finserv, Power Grid, Reliance Industries, NTPC and UltraTech Cement were among the gainers.

“The domestic market is broadly demonstrating a lack of confidence, registering its sixth consecutive day of losses despite global markets turning green. Continued selling in the domestic market by FIIs is acting as an overhang in sustaining the early gains. Crude oil prices rallied as the prospect of lower Russian exports outweighed rising U.S. inventory,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

In Asian markets, South Korea, China and Hong Kong ended lower, while Japan settled in the green.

Equity markets in Europe were trading in the green during afternoon trade. The U.S. markets ended higher on Thursday.

International oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.92% to $82.97 per barrel.

Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) offloaded shares worth ₹1,417.24 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.