Market Wrap, August 14: SENSEX, NIFTY50 end lower for fourth straight session; Tata Motors PV, Jio Fin top laggards

The Indian stock market closed in red for the fourth straight session on Friday, August 14, led by declines in metal and pharma stocks, amid investor caution over geopolitical risks following the latest attacks in West Asia and continued foreign fund outflows.

Furthermore, government data released on Friday showed that the wholesale inflation eased marginally to 9.78% in July from 9.87% in June, even as prices of primary articles and manufactured products rose.

According to exchange data, on Thursday, the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth ₹510.69 crore, while the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought equities worth ₹4,353.09 crore on a net basis.

Globally, Asian indices closed mixed, with most of them settling higher on Friday. The US futures were little changed after US inflation data showed a better-than-expected improvement in July.

Japan's Nikkei rose 0.75%, China's Shanghai remained flat, South Korea's KOSPI jumped 2.36% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped 1.17%.

Here are the key developments of Friday's session that you need to know

As many as 3,461 stocks traded on the NSE on Friday. Out of this, 1,855 declined and 1,479 stocks advanced, while 127 scrips remained unchanged.

This indicated that the market breadth was in favour of declines.

A total of 111 stocks hit their 52-week highs, while 76 stocks touched their one-year lows. Besides, 115 stocks hit their upper circuit limits, and 87 touched their lower circuit bands on Friday.

India VIX, the volatility gauge, stood at 11.32 levels, slipping 0.85%.

The broader market closed the session negative, underperforming the main equity benchmark indices. The Nifty Midcap 100 fell 0.53% to settle at 63,782.15, while the Nifty Smallcap 100 lost 0.69% to end at the 19,738.55 level.

Except for NIFTY Media (0.96%) and NIFTY Consumer Durables (0.76%), all the other gauges ended the session with losses.

NIFTY Pharma (-0.9%) was the top loser, followed by NIFTY Metal (-0.71%), NIFTY Auto (-0.63%), NIFTY PSU Bank (-0.57%) and NIFTY Oil & Gas (-0.47%).

On the NIFTY50 index, 39 stocks declined on Friday, while 10 advanced and one remained unchanged at the end of the session.

On the contrary, Apollo Hospitals (3.85%), Bharti Airtel (2.73%), Adani Ports (2.53%), Adani Enterprises (2.37%) and ICICI Bank (0.73%) were the biggest-gaining stocks on the 50-share index.