Nifty settles below 9600-mark as markets trade in the red through the day

Indian benchmark indices NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex opened in the green, but soon thereafter, the indices plunged into the red zone due to profit booking in Friday’s trading session. NSE Nifty closed at 9,574, down by 55 points, settling below the 9600-mark, while BSE Sensex closed lower by 152 points at 31,138. BSE Mid-cap index closed lower by 1.21 per cent at 14,583, whereas BSE Small-cap index closed with a loss of 1.46 per cent at 15,381. India VIX also closed higher by 3.5 per cent at 11.6.  
 
All the BSE sectoral indices closed in the red. S&P BSE Auto was the top loser, down by nearly 2 per cent, with Bharat Forge declining by about 4 per cent and driving the index down. BSE IT was the only index trading in the green in intra-day trading, but it slipped into the red in the closing hours. HDFC Bank and SBI contributed by nearly 60 per cent to the decline in Bank Nifty, which was the top losing index on the NSE. The market breadth was highly negative, with an advance-decline ratio of 1:4.
 
Housing finance companies were in the limelight in the trading session on Friday. Housing stocks, including India Home Loan, Indiabulls Housing Finance, DHFL, PNB Housing Finance, LIC Housing Finance and GIC Housing Finance got beaten in intra-day trading and traded in the red territory throughout the day.
 
Power Grid, Vedanta, Sun Pharma, Aurobindo Pharma and Wipro were the top gainers in Nifty, whereas Bank of Baroda, IOC, Eicher Motors, Hero Motocorp and Bosch became the top Nifty losers. Fortis Healthcare lost over 10 per cent on the BSE during the early hours of trade.