The Sensex and Nifty mustered gains for the second straight session on Friday, propped up by banking, FMCG and pharma stocks, but closed lower for the week as the surging Delta variant cases sapped risk appetite globally.
Overcoming a choppy start, the 30-share BSE Sensex ended 138.59 points or 0.26 per cent higher at 52,975.80.
On similar lines, the broader NSE Nifty advanced 32 points or 0.20 per cent to finish at 15,856.05.
ICICI Bank topped the Sensex gainers’ chart with a jump of 3.18 per cent ahead of its results on Saturday. ITC, SBI, HCL Tech, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finserv, Tech Mahindra and Sun Pharma were among the other winners, advancing up to 2.56 per cent.
On the other hand, L&T, HUL, Reliance Industries, NTPC, Asian Paints and HDFC Bank were the prominent losers, dropping up to 1.80 per cent.
During the week, the Sensex declined 164.26 points or 0.30 per cent, while the Nifty slipped 67.35 points or 0.42 per cent.
“The markets today witnessed a bumper listing of one of the most awaited IPOs in recent history, Zomato. The exuberance though was not broad based, the market breadth remained negative for the day. The weekly trend too remained marginally negative as all the major market cap based broader indices closed marginally in the negative for the week.
“The strong show of IT stocks continued whereas slippages in reported asset quality and expectations of rising NPA risks dragged down the banking stocks. The expected rise in NPAs may have broader market implications as it exposes the pandemic-caused vulnerability of both household as well as corporate balance sheets,” said Joseph Thomas, Head of Research at Emkay Wealth Management.
Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said, “Domestic indices continued to advance ahead tracking rising global risk appetite and higher domestic inflows from local investors.”