Profit bookings, global cues subdue equity indices

Mumbai, July 31 Profit bookings as well as global concerns over the fast-paced spread of the Delta+ variant of Covid-19 subdued India's key equity indices on Friday.

Besides, regulatory actions in China offset the optimism around the quarterly earnings season and an economic recovery.

However, healthy pickup in pharma and fertiliser stocks arrested any sharp fall.

Consequently, the BSE Sensex ended the day's trade at 52,586.84 points, lower by 66.23 points or 0.13 per cent from its previous close.

Similarly, the Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange closed at 15,763.05, lower by 15.40 points or 0.1 per cent from its previous close.

"Nifty has repeatedly run into resistance in the 15862-15899 band over the past six sessions. It closed lower for the second consecutive week, though by a small per cent. However, the lower shadows are growing over the past three weeks, suggesting sharp recovery post higher selling pressure," said Deepak Jasani, Head of Retail Research at HDFC Securities.

"How long such recoveries will continue is a moot point. Nifty could remain in the 15578-15899 band in the coming week," he added.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said: "Taking support from pharma, fertiliser and auto stocks, the domestic market attempted to trade positively, but failed to stick to the gains amid weak global trend. Eurozone inflation in July rose to 2.2 per cent YoY above European Central Bank's target impacting the European market while the Chinese market too was fragile.

"Pharma stocks were back on action beating early worries of weak Q1 results as recent quarterly of major companies were in favour of market expectation. Fertiliser stocks were in focus today as Chinese firms were asked to suspend exports in order to ensure domestic supply."

S. Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities, said: "A highly volatile session of trade today with plenty of action across stocks and sectors. Profit booking was seen in key pivotals and across high quality midcaps which erased the gains for the day.

"The Pharma index, however, bucked the trend with a stellar 3.5 per cent upmove today led by the big boys which posted good numbers for the quarter. A day of high volatility amid a slew of earnings was indeed the highlight of the day."