Sensex ends 50 points lower at 38,981, Nifty also slips by 23 points

The benchmark BSE Sensex started on a weak note on Thursday and settled at 38,981 after dropping 50.12 points in the end while the NSE Nifty too was trading 14.65 points in the early session and ended 11,724.75 after slipping 23.40 points. 

In the previous session on Tuesday, the BSE bourse closed with 0.09 per cent or 35.78 points loss at 39,031.55, while the NSE Nifty ended 0.06 per cent or 6.50 points lower at 11,748.15.

Tata Steel was the biggest gainer in the Sensex pack on Friday, spurting 6.67 per cent after the company posted a rise in consolidated income for the March quarter.

Axis Bank gained 2.61 per cent it reported a net profit of Rs 1,505 crore for the March quarter, driven by a significant decline in provisioning and higher interest income.

ICICI Bank, TCS, SBI, RIL, Infosys, HDFC twins, Kotak Bank, HUL, NTPC, IndusInd Bank, Sun Pharma, HCL Tech, Bajaj Finance L&T and ITC were the other gainers, rising up to 3.05 per cent.

On the other hand, Tata Motors, Bajaj Auto, Maruti, Bharti Airtel, Coal India, M&M and Vedanta fell up to 2.84 per cent.Hero MotoCorp and Yes Bank ended up to 0.51 per cent lower ahead of their quarterly earnings.

According to traders, market sentiment was choppy as investors took weak cues from glaobe equities after the US Federal Reserve Wednesday decided to keep its benchmark interest rate unchanged amid mixed signals about the direction of the US economy.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, slipped 1.28 per cent to USD 73.41 per barrel. The rupee rebounded 25 paise to 70 against the US dollar intra-day.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased equity worth Rs 3,785.73 crore on Thursday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares to the tune of Rs 4,069.98 crore, provisional data available with stock exchanges showed.

Elsewhere in Asia, benchmark equity indices in Shanghai, Tokyo and Seoul ended on a negative note. European equites were also weak in early trade

(With inputs from PTI)