Sensex closes flat after narrow range trade but Nifty ends week with 1.5% gain

The market closed rangebound session flat with a negative bias on Friday due to weakness in global peers but posted 1.5 percent gains for the week. Smooth rollout of GST and hopes of early recovery in PSU banks’ earnings helped the Nifty perform better for the first time in last four consecutive weeks.

The rally in Reliance Industries helped the market trim losses in last hour of trade but the correction in other index heavyweights HDFC, ICICI Bank, ITC and Infosys limited recovery.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 8.71 points at 31,360.63 and the 50-share NSE Nifty slipped 8.75 points to 9,665.80 despite positive market breadth. About 1,392 shares advanced against 1,285 declining shares on the BSE.

Experts feel the 9,600 level on the Nifty is crucial in the coming week as IT bellwethers will kick off June quarter earnings season with TCS reporting numbers on July 13 followed by Infosys on July 14.

“Markets are now waiting for the earning season to kick-start as that would trigger the next directional move,” Jayant Manglik, President, Retail Distribution, Religare Securities said.

Meanwhile, he advised that traders should limit their trades and focus on stock selection and also, keep a close eye on global developments and further updates on monsoon.

Sounding extremely bullish on the market going forward, JM Financial’s Associate Director & Technical Analyst Gautam Shah said, “Looking at the charts, it is pretty clear that the bulls are here for the long run, the marathon.

The levels of 9550-9600 seen during consolidation phase become a major support area, according to him.

For the week, the Sensex was up 1.4 percent and Nifty gained 1.5 percent while the broader markets outperformed, with the Nifty Midcap up 2 percent and BSE Smallcap rising 3 percent.

Reliance Industries surged to fresh nine-year high today, with market cap at Rs 4.84 lakh crore. The stock moved closer to Rs 1,500 level, up 3.4 percent at Rs 1,490.80.

Lupin was second biggest gainer among Sensex stocks, up 3.3 percent after CFO Ramesh Swaminathan told CNBC-TV18 that USFDA fears are overdone and he expects 25-30 drug launches in FY18. The upside was also seen in other pharma stocks like Aurobindo Pharma (up 1.95 percent), Cipla (0.6 percent), Sun Pharma (0.88 percent) and Dr Reddy’s Labs (1.4 percent).

HDFC, ICICI Bank, ITC, Infosys, Asian Paints, Axis Bank and ONGC were under pressure, down 0.8-1.3 percent.

In the broader space, CDSL continued to strengthen with record closing at Rs 331.15, up 12.7 percent on top of 11 percent rally in previous session.

Hindustan Foods surged 10 percent on bagging orders from Reliance Brands & Arvind Lifestyle for manufacturing of leather shoes.

On the global front, European markets were lower as investors awaited fresh economic data, a G-20 meeting in Hamburg and continued to mull the possible end of monetary stimulus from central banks. France’s CAC and Germany’s DAX were down 0.3 percent each at the time of writing this article.
Asian markets barring China also closed lower, with the Japan’s Nikkei, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and South Korea’s Kospi down 0.3-0.5 percent amid geopolitical tensions.