The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex on Friday closed 30.68 points up at 32,272.61. The National Stock Exchange Nifty, however, finished almost flat at 10,085.40.
After trading lower in the morning session because of the geopolitical tensions in the Korean Peninsula and profit booking in power, real estate, healthcare and capital goods stocks, the Sensex surged in the afternoon session. It traded 103 points up at 2.55 pm, only to fall sharply in the last half-an-hour of the day. The Nifty also traded 50 points up in the afternoon session before declining.
ONGC, Bajaj Auto, Coal India and Infosys were the top gainers on both indices. The fifth top performer at the BSE was Wipro while at the NSE it was Bharti Infratel.
The top five losers on the Sensex were BHEL, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, ITC, NTPC and State Bank of India. On the Nifty, the stock that declined the most was Dr Reddy’s Laboratories followed by IndusInd Bank, ACC, Tata Power and Aurobindo Pharma.
In the Asian market, Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 102 points up while the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation ended 26 points higher. The Hong Kong Hang Seng also gained 30 points. The Shanghai SE Composite Index, however, lost 17.81 points. “In the past, Asian markets stabilised within a few days after a North Korean missile launch,” Chief Global Strategist at Daiwa Securities Hirokazu Kabeya told Reuters. “So in a way, this seems like something markets have already experienced before, thus producing a limited reaction.”
The rupee was trading three paise down at 64.14 to the dollar at 3.57 pm.
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