Sensex off day’s high, down 100pts; Nifty50 below 18,000

Domestic markets reversed early losses and edged higher in Friday’s intra-day trade, supported by gains in index heavyweights like Reliance Industries, ITC, Hindustan Unilever, Mahindra & Mahindra, among many others.

While the benchmark index Nifty50 gained over 30 points to trade above 18,000 levels, the S&P BSE Sensex advanced over 150 points to hit day’s high of 60,537 levels.

Broader markets, however, were subdued in trade as Nifty MidCap 100 and Nifty SmallCap 100 indices declined up to 0.1 per cent.

Sectorally, Nifty Pharma, Nifty Metal, and Nifty FMCG indices held the fort with marginal gains. On the flipside, Nifty IT, and Nifty Media, and Nifty Bank indices declined up to 0.4 per cent.

Among individual stocks, shares of IDBI Bank gained 5 per cent after Sebi acceded to the central government’s request to reclassify its shareholding in the Bank after its disinvestment as “public holding”. READ MORE

Besides, shares of VLS Finance tumbled over 4 per cent after it approved buyback worth Rs 70 crore at Rs 200 per share via open market route.