Sensex, Nifty Struggle As Banking Shares Drag Markets Lower

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes were trading on a weak note in trade on Friday weighed down by weakness in banking, financial services, metal and realty sector shares. Meanwhile, rising COVID-19 cases continue to weigh on investors' sentiment. The benchmarks opened lower and extended losses in noon deals wherein the Sensex fell as much as 392 points and Nifty 50 index briefly slipped below its important psychological level of 11,100.

As of 1:09 pm, the Sensex was down 289 points at 37,851 and Nifty fell 100 points to 11,115.

A record single-day jump of 49,310 new coronavirus patients registered in the last 24 hours has taken India's COVID-19 tally to 12.87 lakh cases, the Union Health Ministry said this morning. More than 30,000 deaths linked to one of the most infectious illnesses known to the world in the recent decades have been reported in India. In the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry recorded 740 coronavirus-linked deaths.

All the 11 sector gauges, barring the index of information technology companies, compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty Bank and Metal indexes over 2.5 per cent decline. Nifty Private Bank, PSU Bank, Realty, Pharma, Media and Auto indexes also fell over a per cent each.

Mid- and small-cap shares were also witnessing selling pressure as the Nifty Midcap 100 index declined 0.6 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index slipped 0.3 per cent.

Zee Entertainment was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 5 per cent to Rs 151. ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Hindalco, Bharti Infratel, Vedanta, Axis Bank, GAIL India, Tata Motors, Grasim Industries and Bharat Petroleum also fell between 2.4-3.7 per cent each.

On the flipside, Reliance Industries was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose for sixth day in a row on Friday to hit a new record high. Reliance Industries stock price rose as much as 4.3 per cent intraday to hit a new all-time high of Rs 2149.70 on the BSE. With the surge in share price or Reliance Industries, the company remains the most valued company in the country and is the first entity in India to have crossed market caapitalisation of Rs 13.50 lakh crore.

IndusInd Bank, Tech Mahindra, Sun Pharma, HCL Technologies and Wipro were also among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1,632 shares were declining while 827 were advancing on the BSE.