Nifty, Sensex extend losing streak for 5th week

Swayed by global markets, Indian equities opened lower and witnessed a choppy session on Friday, to close the day with a cut of 121 points for Nifty while Sensex fell by 365 points.

Nifty opened gap down and remained in the negative territory throughout the session to close with a loss of 121 points (-0.6 per cent) at 19,265, while the Sensex fell 365.83 points to settle at 64,886.51. 

This meant Nifty and Sensex extended their losing streak for the fifth week, losing ~2.43 per cent and ~2.7 per cent, respectively, in the past five weeks of correction, said Omkar Kamtekar, Research Analyst, Bonanza Portfolio.

The boarder markets also tumbled on Friday, indicating signs of a deeper weakness in the overall market sentiment.

All the sectoral indices closed in the red, with NIFTY PSU index being the top loser - down 1.51 per cent - followed by NIFTY Realty (-1.31 per cent) and NIFTY Metal (-1.26 per cent), Kamtekar said.

Jio Financial Services (JFS) ended its losing streak, closing with a minor gain of 0.49 per cent as it saw massive volume-based buying at lower levels. Further, the exclusion of JFS from Sensex has been deferred to September 1.

The Bajaj twins, i.e., Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserv, were among the top gainers as Nomura initiated a Buy call on Bajaj Finance with a price target of Rs 8,700.

The top gainers for Nifty were Bajaj Finance, Asian Paints and Bajaj Finserv, and the top losers were Dr. Reddy's, Adani Ports and JSW Steel, he said.

The Nifty Midcap Index underperformed the Nifty with a large margin by falling 0.82 per cent in Friday's session, said Devarsh Vakil, Deputy Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities.

Nifty Midcap 100 and Smallcap 100 witnessed massive profit booking from highs, as these indices fell by 0.82 per cent and 0.41 per cent, respectively, on the closing.

Declining shares outnumbered the advancing shares as the advance decline ratio stood at 0.69 on BSE, lowest since August 2, Vakil said.