The Indian equity benchmarks were trading in a rangebound manner with a flat bias on Friday as gains in NTPC, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Power Grid and Tata Steel were offset with losses in Infosys, ICICI Bank, Titan, HCL Technologies and ITC. The Sensex traded in a band of 235 points and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 17,499.95 and low of 17,422.70 amid weak global cues.
As of 9:35 am, the Sensex was up 25 points at 58,593 and Nifty 50 index advanced 14 points to 17,479.
Asian shares were mostly lower Friday as a resurgence of Russian attacks dashed hopes for any quick end to the war in Ukraine.
The retreat followed a broad decline on Wall Street, which closed out its worst quarter since the pandemic broke out two years ago.
A closely watched quarterly gauge of business sector sentiment in Japan called the “tankan,” carried out by the Bank of Japan, found the benchmark indicator for large manufacturers dropped for the first time in seven quarters, losing three points from a survey in December to 14 points from 17 points.
The war in Ukraine, coming on top of supply chain disruptions at top manufacturers caused by COVID-19 restrictions and growing worries about inflation, especially soaring energy costs, are clouding the outlook for already fragile growth in the world’s third largest economy.
South Korea’s Kospi lost 0.6 per cent to 2,741.79. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 edged up 0.1 per cent to 7,507.50. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.8 per cent to 21,818.42, while the Shanghai Composite added 0.9 per cent to 3,280.20.
Rising COVID cases in China are adding to the worries of a regional slowdown. The lockdown in Shanghai entered its second phase of extended restrictions, while restrictions were lifted in hard hit Jilin.
Back home, fifteen of 19 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading higher led by the S&P BSE Power index's over 2 per cent gain. Metal, Utilities, Basic Materials, Energy, Telecom, Oil & Gas and Real Estate shares were also witnessing buying interest.
On the other hand, select auto, consumer durables, IT and auto shares were facing selling pressure.
Mid- and small-cap shares were outperforming their larger peers as S&P BSE MidCap index rose 0.65 per cent and S&P BSE SmallCap index climbed 1.1 per cent.
NTPC was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 3 per cent to Rs 139 after it cocked highest ever annual electricity generation of 360 billion units in 2021-22, registering a growth of 14.6 per cent compared to the previous year.
Power Grid, Bharat Petroleum, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, HDFC Life, UPL, Adani Ports, Coal India, HDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank also rose between 0.8-2.6 per cent.
On the flipside, SBI Life, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, HDFC, Dr Reddy's Labs and Cipla were among the losers.
The overall market breadth was positive as 2,267 shares were advancing while 653 were declining on the BSE.
