D-St makes U-turn as Sensex wipes off 600-pt gain to end marginally lower; Nifty slips below 16,600

In a sharp U-turn in the final hour of trade, the benchmark indices shifted gears to end the week in the red. The short one-day relief rally came to a halt as investors dumped bank stocks ahead of the MPC meeting from June 6-8. The week saw volatility and multiple debates rage around inflation while they feared bigger rate hikes from the Reserve Bank of India is on the cards.

The benchmark indices opened higher after weak US employment data raised the possibility of the Fed turning less aggressive but erased 600-points from the day's high and succumbed to fag-end selling.

The 30-share pack Sensex declined marginally by 48.88 points or 0.09 per cent to end the session at 55,769.23. Its broader peer Nifty50 settled 43.70 points or 0.26 per cent but managed to hold the 16,550 mark.

Even though the benchmarks declined for 3 out of five sessions, they have managed to end the week with gains for the third straight week with gains of around 1.5 per cent each.

Market at a glance
-Aether Industries hit 20% upper circuit minutes after its D-Street debut
-Deepak Nitrite declined 4% on the fire incident at the Gujarat facility
-Auto stocks continued to fall -- Maruti 2%, M&M and Tata Motors over 1% each
-TCI Express added 4% after the brokerage upgrade
-VA Tech Wabag jumped 3.6% on order win boost

Reliance Industries was the star of the show and top gainer of today's session as added over 2 per cent to close at Rs 2,779.50 after the refining-to-retail conglomerate teamed up with Castrol India to sell lubricants in India amid the buzz of the heavyweight's foray in the EV charging business.

The late sell-off indicates the lack of confidence in the domestic market driven by the concerns over Central Bank policy. While in the global market, the investors were waiting for the release of US job data , said Vinod Nair, Head Of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

"If the central banks decide on a stringent policy tightening, the market mood can swing bearish," he added.

Gainers & Losers
Infosys, L&T, Sun Pharma, TCS, and Wipro ended the session with gains while Ultratech, Maruti, NTPC, Axis Bank, and IndusInd Bank settled in the red.

Shares of UltraTech Cement also reversed early gains and declined over 5.5 per cent after the company announced a Rs 12,866 crore capex plan. Shares of cement companies -- Grasim, Dalmia Bharat, Ambuja Cement, and Shree Cement also fell around 6 per cent after Ultratech's expansion plans are set to increase competition in the sector.

Sectoral Matrix
13 out of the 15 sector gauges -- compiled by the NSE-- settled in the red. The Nifty Auto index led losses among sectoral indices with a 1.8 per cent drop. The Nifty PSU Bank index also dropped 1.4 per cent. Nifty Bank also gave up gains and settled 0.95 per cent lower. the index also turned negative for the week and turned negative for the week after Friday's fall.

Nifty Midcap 100 plunged 1.64 per cent while the small-cap index ended 0.86 per cent higher.

Market breadth favoured declines as 1,308 stocks advanced, 2,029 declined and 129 were unchanged.

Global Markets
Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Seoul and Tokyo ended in the green. Chinese markets were closed for a holiday.
Markets in Europe were trading mostly higher during afternoon trade.

US index futures fell after a report that Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said the electric carmaker needs to cut staff amid a gloomy economic outlook. Meanwhile, international oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.66 per cent to $116.8 per barrel.