Sensex and Nifty, the two key equity benchmarks, pared gains on Friday after a heavy bout of selling in late trades and ended in the negative zone. The domestic indices slipped into the red as the day progressed owing to weakness in index heavyweights ICICI Bank and HDFC twins.
The BSE Sensex declined 293 points to of 60,841. Despite the day’s loss, the BSE benchmark managed to gain 1.7 per cent this week, and also signed-off the year 2022 on a winning note – 4.4 per cent higher. On the other hand, the NSE Nifty 50 settled 86 points lower on the last trading day of the year to 18,105.
On the 30 share Sensex platform, ICICI Bank was down 1.74 per cent, and was solely responsible for a near 100 points loss on the benchmark. Bharti Airtel, HDFC, Nestle India, Mahindra & Mahindra, ITC, Asian Paints, Larsen & Toubro, and PowerGrid Corporation were the other notable losers.
On the flip side, Bajaj Finserv rallied over 2 per cent. Titan, Bajaj Finance, and Tata Steel were up over a per cent each.
In the broader markets, the BSE Midcap index gained 0.4 per cent, while the Smallcap index advanced 0.8 per cent.
The overall market breadth too was fairly positive, with nearly 2,200 advancing shares versus 1,300-odd declining stocks on the BSE.
In contrast the day’s performance, the broader indices were underperformers in the year 2022. Among sectors, metal, realty, and PSU Bank indices up 0.5-1 per cent, while power, bank and FMCG indices down 0.5 percent each.
In the previous session on Thursday, the S&P BSE Sensex closed day’s trade at 61,134, up 224 points while the broader NSE Nifty50 ended at 18,191, up 68 points.
Meanwhile, the rupee gained 14 paise to close at 82.73 (provisional) against the US dollar in the last trading session of 2022, as the American currency retreated from its elevated levels and a rising appetite for riskier assets among investors.
The local currency, however, ended the year on a negative note, with a loss of 844 paise or 11.36 per cent, primarily led by a strong dollar against its major crosses overseas. The greenback climbed in the overseas market as the US Federal Reserve raised rates aggressively following surging inflation.
At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit opened at 82.77 and touched an intra-day high of 82.70 and a low of 82.82 against the greenback. It finally settled at 82.73, registering a rise of 14 paise over its previous close of 82.87.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude futures fell 0.53 per cent to $83.02 per barrel.
Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital markets on Thursday as they offloaded shares worth Rs 572.78 crore, according to exchange data.