Sensex drops nearly 300 pts during the week on subdued trades

Mumbai: Markets fell on the first session of the new F&O series Friday with the BSE Sensex ending down 54 points at 27,782.25 as investors chose to stay on the sidelines ahead of a speech by the US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen. On a weekly basis, the Sensex fell 294.75 points or 1.04 percent and the NSE Nifty slipped 94.35 points or 1.08 percent. Both the indexes posted second straight weekly losses. [caption id=“attachment_2406514” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Reuters[/caption] Shares of Welspun India despite rising 7 percent during the day, pared all of its initial gains to end lower by 8.64 percent at Rs 49.70. The scrip had plunged by 47 percent in the past four sessions. Tata Motors rose 2.01 percent to Rs 503.65 inspite of posting 57 percent decline in net profit to Rs 2,260.40 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, due to post Brexit adverse foreign exchange impacting its British arm JLR. “The market was a bit cautious and traded on a wait and watch mode as the investors are not ready to take risk ahead of the Fed chair’s speech. Any hawkish view might result in outflow of foreign funds from the emerging markets like India in the near term,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services. The 30-share Sensex after opening higher, stayed in the negative zone for the most part of the session and touched a low of 27,696.99. The gauge finally settled 53.66 points or 0.19 percent down at 27,782.25. The 50-share NSE Nifty ended 19.65 points or 0.23 percent down at 8,572.55, after trading between 8,622.95 and 8,547.55. Broader markets showed mixed trend as mid-cap rose 0.17 percent, while small-cap indices was down 0.12 percent. Elsewhere, Asian stocks ended mixed while European stocks opened lower, with investors focusing on a speech by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen later in the session for hints about the timing of a US interest rate hike. European markets were also lower as key indices in France, Germany and the UK fell up to 0.31 percent. Asian indices, like in Japan and Singapore, fell by up to 1.18 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng moved up by 0.41 percent. Back home, 17 scrips out of the 30-share Sensex pack ended lower while 13 closed higher. Major losers included Wipro (3 percent), L&T (2 percent), Adani Ports (1.75 percent), Infy (1.52 percent), SBI (1.34 percent), Sun Pharma (1.16 percent), HUL (0.85 percent), Bharti Airtel (0.85 percent), Power Grid (0.85 percent), TCS (0.82 percent), ICICI Bank (0.77 percent) and Lupin (0.68 percent). However, Tata Motors rose 2.01 percent followed by GAIL 1.61 percent, Asian Paints 1.51 percent, RIL 1.44 percent and Cipla 0.88 percent. Among BSE sectoral and industries, IT fell 1.25 percent followed by Capital Goods 1.24 percent, Realty 1.15 percent, Teck 0.98 percent, Healthcare 0.67 percent, Bankex 0.59 percent and Power 0.49 percent, however Consumer Durables rose by 1.46 percent followed by oil&gas by 0.70 percent, Auto by 0.62 percent and Telecom by 0.33 percent. The market breadth remained positive as 1,547 stocks ended in green, 1,094 closed in red while 209 ruled steady. The total turnover on BSE was to Rs 2,799.42 crore, lower than turnover of Rs 2,922.56 crore registered during the previous trading session.