The NSE Nifty rose 28.75 points or 0.1% at 25,694.35. The BSE Sensex ended at 83,570.35, climbing 187.64 points or 0.2%. Both indices had risen as much as 0.9% earlier in the day. For the truncated trading week, Nifty rose marginally while Sensex ended a tad lower.
“Infosys and a slew of PSU banks reported a good set of numbers, which led to a rally in these stocks, but worries about tensions on the geopolitical front over the weekend prompted investors to book profits,” said Sunny Agrawal, head of fundamental research at SBI Securities.
Brent crude futures dropped 4.2% to $63.8 a barrel on Thursday after worries about the US attacking Iran eased. Gold prices declined 0.1%, and silver prices fell 1.7%.
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At home, Nifty IT jumped 3.3%, led by Infosys and Oracle Financial Services Software, which surged around 5.5% each. All 10 constituents of the IT Index moved higher on Friday. Bank Nifty climbed 0.9% while the Nifty PSU Bank index gained 1.2%. However, Nifty Pharma, Healthcare, and Consumer Durables indices fell over 1% each.
Since Nifty breached the 50-DMA support of 25,800 levels last week, this level is acting as a resistance and led to the benchmark giving up gains made in the early trading session, said Ruchit Jain, head of technical research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services.”Nifty is anticipated to take support around 25,400 levels in the near term, but volatile sessions are likely to continue,” said Jain.
Foreign portfolio investors sold shares worth ₹4,346.1 crore on Friday, while domestic institutions bought ₹3,935.3 crore. FPIs have offloaded ₹22,307 crore so far in January.
The Nifty Mid-cap 150 ended flat while the Small-cap 250 dropped 0.5%. Of 4,394 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,849 advanced and 2,395 declined.
“The construct of the market remains positive, and no major declines are anticipated, and investors remain hopeful ahead of the Budget,” he said.