Mumbai: Equity benchmarks nursed losses for the third session on the trot on Friday, weighed by profit-booking in market heavyweight Reliance Industries amid weak global cues.
The BSE Sensex ended 129.18 points or 0.34 per cent lower at 37,606.89 after a choppy session.
Similarly, the NSE Nifty fell 28.70 points or 0.26 per cent to finish at 11,073.45.
During the week, the Sensex fell 522.01 points or 1.36 per cent, while the Nifty declined 120.70 points or 1.07 per cent.
Reliance Industries was the top loser on the Sensex chart in Friday’s session, shedding 1.98 per cent, as investors began booking profits at higher levels.
The company on Thursday reported a record net profit of Rs 13,248 crore for the June quarter after a one-time gain from stake sale as well as bumper telecom revenues cushioned COVID-19 hit earnings from refining, petchem and retail segments.
HDFC Bank, HDFC, Asian Paints, Kotak Bank, Bajaj Auto and UltraTech Cement were among the other laggards.
On the other hand, Sun Pharma, SBI, HCL Tech, M&M and Axis Bank finished among the gainers, spurting up to 4.27 per cent.
Shares of SBI surged 2.63 per cent after the lender posted an 81 per cent spike in standalone net profit at Rs 4,189.34 crore for the first quarter of the current fiscal.
According to traders, domestic equities traded on a volatile note, tracking weak global cues after data showed that the US GDP plunged by a record-shattering 32.9 per cent annual rate last quarter due to the COVID-19 crisis.
Bourses in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul settled in the red, while Shanghai finished with gains.
Stock exchanges in Europe were trading with marginal gains in early deals.
“Following one of the worst quarterly US GDP data, Asian shares closed in the negative while European markets were also trading flat. In India, the uncertainty was visible as profit booking and post-earnings results performance of index heavyweights, impacted the benchmark indices.
“On a weekly basis, the indices closed with slight losses following a results-heavy week and stock specific action in the benchmark indices while at the same time virus infections continued to increase,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
BSE energy, oil and gas, finance, banking and auto indices fell up to 1.64 per cent, while healthcare, realty, metal, basic materials and FMCG rose as much as 3.45 per cent.
Broader BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices bucked the market trend to end up to 0.82 per cent higher.
Global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.51 per cent higher at USD 43.47 per barrel. With a record single-day surge of 55,078 infections, India’s COVID-19 caseload raced past 16 lakh on Friday, just two days after it reached the 15-lakh mark, while the number of recoveries rose to 10,57,805, according to Union Health Ministry data.
The death toll increased to 35,747 with 779 fatalities being reported in 24 hours.

Press Trust of India