Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended Friday’s trading session in red, dragged by losses in Metal, Realty and Oil & Gas sector’s stocks. Index made a negative start, as investors were cautious with Provisional data from the National Stock Exchange (NSE) showed that foreign institutional investors (FII) sold shares worth Rs 1,093.47 crore on October 19. However, losses remain capped in late morning session, as some support came with International Monetary Fund (IMF) stating that India has room to absorb additional expenditure towards subsidies and rural unemployment programme without raising its fiscal deficit target from 5.9% set for the current financial year.
In afternoon session, index continued to trade on lower note till the end of session, as traders remained cautious after the surge in the 10-year US benchmark yield overnight to briefly touch 5% has raised borrowing costs around the world. Further, weakness also prevailed in the markets as Reserve Bank of India -- Governor Shaktikanta Das said the global economy is now facing a triad of challenges. He added that the recent surge in crude oil prices and bond yield is a major challenge.
Most of the sectorial indices ended in red except Private Bank stocks. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Multi Commodity Exchange of India United Breweries and Delta Corp. On the other hand, the top losers were Indraprastha Gas, Mahanagar Gas and Havells India. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 19700 - 19900 calls and 19400 - 19600 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.
