Sensex, Nifty Snap 5-Day Winning Streak Dragged By HDFC, Axis Bank

The Indian equity benchmarks snapped their five-day winning streak on Friday as investors booked profits at higher levels. The benchmarks staged a gap down opening with Sensex falling over 450 points and Nifty hitting an intraday low of 18,120. However, buying in heavyweights like Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, HDFC Bank and Larsen & Toubro helped stage recovery in noon deals to close marginally lower.

The Sensex fell 12 points to 61,223 and Nifty 50 index declined 2 points to close at 18,256.

Twelve of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the Nifty FMCG index's 0.7 per cent decline. Nifty Pharma, Healthcare, Financial Services, Bank and Auto indices also ended with a negative bias.

On the other hand, IT, real estate and consumer durable shares witnessed buying interest.

Small-cap shares were outperformed their larger and mid-cap peers as the gauge of smallcap shares on the NSE rose nearly 1 per cent.

Among the individual shares, Paytm bounced from its all-time low hit in the previous session. The stock jumped 8 per cent to Rs 1,112 after it shut its Canadian application.

Asian Paints was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 2.67 per cent to close at Rs 3,364. Axis Bank, UPL, Hindustan Unilever, ONGC, Mahindra & Mahindra, Nestle India, HDFC, Wipro, Bharti Airtel, Britannia Industries, Hero MotoCorp and JSW Steel also fell between 1-2.6 per cent.

On the flipside, Tata Consumer Products, Indian Oil, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Adani Ports, Larsen & Toubro, Bharat Petroleum, HDFC Bank and Tech Mahindra rose between 1-4 per cent.

The overall market breadth was positive as 2,062 shares ended lower while 1,345 closed lower on the BSE.