Stock market today: Nifty50 and BSE Sensex remained flat after a volatile trading session on Friday, with gains in oil & gas and auto sectors counterbalanced by declines in IT and FMCG sectors.The BSE Sensex concluded marginally lower by 7.25 points or 0.01 per cent at 80,710.76, with 14 components rising and 16 declining.The trading session witnessed significant fluctuations, with the index initially rising before declining in late morning trading. It reached its lowest point at 80,321.19 in the afternoon before recovering towards the close. The day saw a swing of 715.37 points between its highest and lowest levels.The NSE Nifty recorded a slight increase of 6.70 points or 0.03 per cent, finishing at 24,741.Among Sensex companies, Mahindra & Mahindra rose by 2.34 per cent, whilst Maruti increased by 1.70 per cent. Power Grid, Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel and Eternal also registered gains.ITC, HCL Tech, Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra and Infosys were amongst the declining shares.“Indian equities ended flat today, but sentiment stayed mildly positive as key indices rebounded from intra-day lows on buying at support levels. The auto sector continued to extend gains on expectations of a demand revival.“Global cues also lent support, with US and Asian markets trading higher ahead of the US jobs report, a key trigger for Fed rate cut expectations,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Limited, said.The BSE smallcap index increased by 0.09 per cent, whilst the midcap index decreased by 0.10 per cent.In the BSE sectoral indices, Focused IT experienced the largest decline of 1.44 per cent, followed by IT (1.25 per cent), FMCG (1.22 per cent), realty (1.07 per cent), teck (0.70 per cent) and services (0.60 per cent).In BSE sectoral indices, auto increased by 1.30 per cent and telecommunication rose by 0.96 per cent. Metal (0.71 per cent), consumer discretionary (0.60 per cent) and energy (0.20 per cent) also showed gains.“Markets traded in a narrow range and ended nearly flat on Friday. After a positive start, the Nifty slipped in the first half, weighed down by weakness in IT majors; however, resilience in select heavyweights supported a recovery as the session progressed.“Sector-wise, auto stocks outperformed, rising over 1 per cent on optimism following reduced GST rates for vehicles,” Ajit Mishra – SVP, Research, Religare Broking Ltd, said.For the week, the BSE benchmark increased by 901.11 points or 1.12 per cent, whilst the Nifty rose by 314.15 points or 1.28 per cent.Asian markets showed positive results, with gains in South Korea’s Kospi, Japan’s Nikkei 225, Shanghai’s SSE Composite and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng. European markets traded firmly, whilst US markets closed higher on Thursday.FIIs sold equities worth Rs 106.34 crore on Thursday, whilst DIIs purchased stocks worth Rs 2,233.09 crore, as per exchange data.The global oil benchmark Brent crude decreased by 0.07 per cent to USD 66.93 per barrel.(Disclaimer: Recommendations and views on the stock market and other asset classes given by experts are their own. These opinions do not represent the views of The Times of India)
