Markets move sideways, Sensex gains 30 points, Nifty ends flat

Closing Bell: The domestic stock markets move sideways on the last trading session of the week with key indices ending marginally up. Despite selling across sectors, the market ended on a positive note.

The Bombay Stock Exchange’s 30-share Sensitive Index gained 33.02 points or 0.04 per cent to end at 81,086.21 whereas, the National Stock Exchange’s broader Nifty 50 ended at 24,823.15 with minor gains of 11.65 points or 0.05 per cent.

Bajaj Auto surged 4.74 per cent on Friday to become the top gainer on NSE followed by Coal India which gained 1.7 per cent and Bharti Airtel which surged nearly 1.6 per cent. Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finserv, and Mahindra & Mahindra were other table-toppers in today’s trading session. 

However, Information and Technology (IT) stocks dragged the market down with LTI Mindtree recording a 1.27 per cent decline to top the loser chart. LTI Mindtree was followed by Wipro which lost 1.16 per cent and ONGC which ended 1.01 per cent lower. Other laggards of the day include Asian Paints, Titan, Divi’s Lab, and Britannia. 

In terms of sectoral performance on Friday, every sector excluding Nifty Auto ended in red. A strong sell-off was observed in the real estate stocks with Nifty Realty plunging 2.43 per cent. IT, Media, Banks, Healthcare, and Oil & Gas, were other key sectors which recorded a decline on August 23. 

All the broader market indices excluding Nifty 50 also ended negative with Midcap stocks taking the biggest hit. The volatility in the market also surged with India Vix going up by 4.25 per cent. 

Global markets also showed mixed momentum on Friday as the stakeholders await Federal Chair Jerome Powell’s speech at the Jackson Hole Symposium. While Japan’s Nikkei ended 0.55 per cent uptick, South Korea’s Kospi settled 0.22 per cent down. Chinese stock exchanges also showed minor gains while European stocks are trading marginally up before Powell’s speech.