Mumbai: Benchmark indices on Friday (December 6) ended lower on the back of buying seen in the last hour of trade. The Sensex closed down 334.44 points or 0.82% at 40445.15, while Nifty ends down 104.20 points or 0.87% at 11914.20. Among major losers on the Nifty were Yes Bank, SBI, Zee Entertainment, IndusInd Bank and GAIL, while major gainers were Bharti Infratel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, JSW Steel, Tata Steel, and Dr Reddys Laboratories.
All sectoral indices led by PSU Banks, auto, pharma, energy, infra, metal and IT ended lower. About 863 shares advanced, 1634 shares declined, while 178 shares remain unchanged.
During early hours on Friday, Indian equity indices opened on a firm note led by infra metal and pharma stocks. The Sensex rose 84 points or 0.21 per cent to trade at 40,864.05, while the Nifty 50 was at 12,043.60, up 25.90 points or 0.22 per cent firmer. Around 299 shares have advanced, 107 shares declined while 19 shares remained unchanged. The top gainers on the Indices were Bharti Infratel, ICICI Bank, RIL, HDFC Bank, while the loser stocks were Yes Bank, ITC, HDFC, and Infosys.
Meanwhile, Asian stocks gained on Friday as investors took heart from US President Donald Trump saying trade talks with China were "moving right along", and US oil prices sat near 2-1/2-month highs after OPEC and other producers agreed to cut output.
European shares were expected to follow suit, with major European stock futures trading up around 0.2%. MSCI`s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.4% and Japan`s Nikkei added 0.2%. Australian shares rose 0.4% and South Korea`s Kospi climbed 0.9%, while Hong Kong`s Hang Seng gaining 0.7%.
Trump`s upbeat tone in comments on Thursday was enough to spark buying, despite a lack of agreement between Washington and Beijing over whether existing tariffs should be dropped as part of a preliminary deal to end their trade war.
Brent crude futures dipped 0.4% to $63.14 a barrel, having struck its highest on Thursday since Nov 28, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude eased 0.3% to $58.24 per barrel, still not far off Thursday`s 2-1/2-month high of $59.12.
The agreement coincided with the initial public offering (IPO) of state oil firm Saudi Aramco, which was priced at the top of its range, raising $25.6 billion in the world`s biggest IPO.
In the currency market, the British pound soared on growing confidence that next week`s election will give the Conservative Party the parliamentary majority it needs to deliver Brexit, ending near-term uncertainty. Sterling spiked to a seven-month high of $1.3166 on Thursday and last stood at $1.316, up 1.6% so far this week. It hit 2-1/2-year highs versus the euro.
The euro stood at $1.1107, near a one-month high of $1.11165 set on Wednesday, lifted by firmer euro zone economic data. That helped push the dollar against a basket of major currencies to a one-month low of 97.356 on Thursday. The index was last quoted at 97.379.
Against the yen, the dollar traded at 108.67 yen, having slipped slightly the previous day.
(With Agency Inputs)
