Sensex settles 433 points lower at 37,877; Nifty ends below 11,200 – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Equity indices skid for third consecutive session on Friday with the benchmark BSE sensex falling over 400 points dragged by banking and auto stocks.
The 30-share BSE index fell 433 points or 1.13 per cent to close at 37,877; while, the broader NSE Nifty settled 122 points or 1.08 per cent lower at 11,178.
Top laggards in the sensex pack included M&M, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance, SBI, ITC, HCL Tech and HDFC Bank with their shares falling up to 3.29 per cent. 25 out of 30 stocks finished in red.
While Sun Pharma, NTPC, Tata Steel, Titan and Infosys were the only gainers rising as much as 2.15 per cent.
On the NSE platform, sub-indices Nifty Auto, Bank, PSU Bank and Private Bank slipped as much as 2.57 per cent.
“China data is weak and Europe has opened lower and people are realising that Covid-19 impact will not go away easily,” Deepak Jasani, head of research, HDFC Securities told news agency Reuters.
“Markets are very fickle minded,” he added.
Domestic markets have been hovering around five-month highs, while small-cap shares have risen enough to clock a gain in 2020, but many analysts say these rallies did not reflect the economic reality.
“It is a much deserved correction, valuations were going through the roof,” Samrat Dasgupta, chief executive at Esquire Capital told Reuters.
Meanwhile, the rupee settled 6 paise lower at 74.90 (provisional) against US dollar tracking weak domestic equities.
Exchange data showed that foreign institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 416.28 crore on a net basis on Thursday.
(With agency inputs)