Mr Vishal Wagh, Research Head
On Friday Indian equity benchmarks made a pessimistic start amid weakness in Asian peers. Markets are trading lower with a cut of around half a percent each in early deals amid persistent rise in Covid cases and hiccups in vaccination drive. Breaking all records, India reported a massive surge of 386,888 cases. In the afternoon session, Indian equity benchmarks continued their weak trade amid negative signals from other Asian markets. Selling pressure in the Oil & Gas, PSU and Utilities stocks too influenced the markets. Both Sensex and Nifty are trading around 48,994 and 14,695 levels.
Most of the Asian equity benchmarks traded lower in early deals on Friday, as the market sentiments got dulled with the spike in covid cases in the regions particularly in India and Japan, and the possibility of restrictions or lockdowns in certain markets.
In order to pump up liquidity, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is going to conduct a one-day 'Open Market Operations (OMO) on May 6 to simultaneous purchase and sell government securities.
In Nifty 50 top gainers Divi's Laboratories Ltd, Coal India Ltd, Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Ltd, Grasim Industries Ltd and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. The losers are Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd, HDFC Bank Ltd, ICICI Bank Ltd, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd and Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.