Sensex ends 143 points lower, Nifty at 10,768; banking shares lead losses

Benchmarks Sensex and Nifty ended the week on a bearish note on Friday, tracking weak global cues amid concerns of a fresh set of lockdowns on back of rise in coronavirus cases worldwide. Sensex closed 143 points lower at 36,594 and Nifty fell 45 points lower at 10,768. Yesterday, Sensex ended 408 points higher at 36,737 and Nifty gained 107 points to 10,813.

IndusInd Bank, Tech Mahindra, HDFC, Titan, Axis Bank, M&M, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank were among the top losers.On the other hand, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel, SBI, Reliance Industries, HUL, Bajaj Auto and Infosys were among the gainers. Sectorally, FMCG, IT, pharma and realty stocks were capped by losses in banking, financials, media and metal stocks.

Backed by weak closing on Wall Street, Asian indices closed bearish on the last trading session of the week as investors turned cautious on the rising number of COVID-19 cases across the world and its impact on economic recovery. Wall Street ended lower after the United States reported 60,500 new COVID-19 infections on Thursday, the largest single-day tally of cases by any country. However, European markets reversed the trend and moved higher today.

Commenting on the market's trend today, Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said,"Markets continued their volatile movements and ended the day negative, tracking mixed global cues. Global stocks were mixed following record infections in the US, which led to worries of delayed global economic recovery, while Indian markets worried about record cases of infections and increasing localised lockdowns.

Commenting on the week's overall trend, he added,"On a weekly basis, benchmark indices gained around 1.5%. The weekly gains were mainly driven by liquidity and the hope that the virus would be contained soon and businesses back to normal

On Nifty's near term technical outlook, Jimeet Modi, Founder & CEO, SAMCO Securities & StockNote said,"Nifty index is trading around the resistance of rising wedge and approaching the crest of the wedge. The participation in the rally is not broad-based, only a few heavyweights are driving the index higher. We believe the market is little stretched in the short term and expect a very limited upside. A break below 10,600 will significantly dent the strength of the bulls."

On the currency front, Indian rupee, the local currency ended lower at 75.20 per dollar as against the last closing of 74.99 per dollar. Worldwide, the number of cases linked the Covid-19  disease has crossed 1.22 crore and the death toll has topped 5.54 lakh.