Equity benchmarks surged to fresh lifetime peaks on Friday but finished with modest losses, snapping their three-session winning streak, as investors rotated out of RIL, metal and IT stocks at higher levels. After gyrating 866 points during the day, the 30-share BSE Sensex settled 125.27 points or 0.21 per cent lower at 59,015.89. It had surged to a lifetime high of 59,737.32 in the morning session. Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty slipped 44.35 points or 0.25 per cent to close at 17,585.15, after touching an intra-day record of 17,792.95. Tata Steel was the top laggard among the Sensex components, tumbling 3.57 per cent, followed by SBI, TCS, HUL, Reliance Industries, Sun Pharma and ICICI Bank. In contrast, Kotak Bank, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, Maruti, Nestle India and Bajaj Finserv were among the prominent winners, climbing as much as 5.26 per cent. During the week, the Sensex surged 710 points or 1.21 per cent, while the Nifty advanced 215.90 points or 1.24 per cent. “While the pace of vaccinations and encouraging export data helped bulls get closer to the 60K mark amidst the FTSE and MSCI rebalancing of flows, profit-taking took away all the gains ahead of the outcome of GST Council meet,” said S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities. Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said despite a strong opening, domestic indices gave up early gains to trade flat, driven by profit booking and mixed global sentiments. “PSU Banks were heavily wounded by profit booking although the government approved a guarantee of Rs.30,600 crores to the National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd with an aim to clean stressed assets from the banking sector. Global markets traded cautiously bracing for the Fed Reserve and Bank of England policy meetings next week,” he added. Sectorally, BSE metal, realty, basic materials, energy, power and utilities indices fell up to 2.49 per cent, while bankex, telecom, finance and auto finished higher. Broader BSE midcap and smallcap indices dived up to 1.14 per cent. World stocks remained in the positive zone despite concerns over the fate of Chinese real estate major Evergrande and its impact on the country’s financial system. Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong ended with gains. Equities in Europe were also trading on a positive note in the afternoon session. Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude slipped 0.54 per cent to USD 75.26 per barrel. The rupee closed 4 paise higher at 73.48 against the US dollar on Friday, tracking weakness of the American currency in the overseas market. Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in the capital market on Thursday as they purchased shares worth Rs 1,621.88 crore, as per exchange data.

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