By The Sensex and the Nifty moved in opposite directions on Friday, September 18, with the Sensex down 19.63 points and the Nifty up 75.80 points.
The difference reflects the different constituents of the two indices and bargain buying in some Nifty stocks.
Tata Group shares and technology stocks weighed on the Sensex, while banking, energy and life insurance stocks helped the Nifty.
Both indices still ended the week lower, extending a six-week losing run.
Crude oil above 100 dollars a barrel and foreign selling remained key concerns.
Both benchmarks extended their weekly losing streak to six weeks, which for the Sensex is the longest such run since 2020.
Crude oil remained a key factor, with Brent crude trading above the 100 dollar a barrel mark and easing to about 103 dollars on Friday.
Geopolitical concerns in West Asia continued to weigh on sentiment through the week.
Foreign institutional investor selling and elevated US bond yields were also cited among the pressures on the market.
A large NSE IPO worth about Rs 22,569 crore drew capital away from the secondary market during the week and constrained liquidity.
Technology stocks were among the laggards, and Tata Group shares including TCS and Titan fell sharply, with some of the declines running up to about 4 percent.
Banking, energy and life insurance stocks, including HDFC Life and SBI Life, were among the gainers.
The divergence between a falling Sensex and a rising Nifty on Friday reflected differences in the two indices’ constituents and bargain buying in some Nifty stocks.
On Thursday, September 17, the Sensex had closed at 74,314.59 and the Nifty at 23,270.60.
The Nifty 50 has now advanced for three sessions in a row, even though the weekly figures remain negative.
Market participants are watching crude oil prices, foreign fund flows and corporate earnings for cues on direction in the coming week.
Bombay Stock Exchange building, Mumbai (representative image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
