Indices trade flat, close week with 1.4% gains

The Sensex and Nifty pulled back from their all-time highs to settle on a flat note on Friday, owing to selloffs mainly in IT and banking counters amid a lack of directional cues from global markets.

After surging to its new all-time high of 53,290.81 in early trading, the Sensex ended 18.79 points, or 0.04 per cent, lower at 53,140.06.

The broader Nifty edged lower by 0.80 points or 0.01 per cent at 15,923.40 — its first drop in five sessions. Intra-day, the index soared to its lifetime high of 15,962.25 before moving down.

On the Sensex chart, HCL Technologies was the top loser, shedding over 3 per cent, followed by Infosys, Bajaj Finserv, ICICI Bank, NTPC, and Indusind Bank.

On the other hand, Bharti Airtel, Ultratech Cement, Tata Steel, Powergrid, and Reliance were among the gainers.

During the week, the Sensex rallied 753 points or 1.43 per cent, while the Nifty surged 233.60 points or 1.48 per cent.

“Indian markets opened with gains; however, failed to maintain and ended flattish as profit-booking was triggered in major sectors barring pharma. Buying interest was seen in the pharma sector in anticipation of strong Q1 results. The risk of profitbooking is rising due to elevated performance and lack of direction from the Western developed markets with flat performance recently,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.