SENSEX, NIFTY50 end rangebound session marginally lower dragged by HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel

The Indian equity benchmarks ended rangebound session marginally lower on Friday, November 28, ahead of announcement of the second quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth data.

During the session, losses in index heavyweights like HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, Infosys, Power Grid, Eternal and Axis Bank outweighed gains in Mahindra & Mahindra, Reliance Industries, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Sun Pharma and Hindustan Unilever.

The SENSEX traded in a range of 392 points and NIFTY50 index touched an intraday high of 26,281 and low of 26,172.

The SENSEX ended 14 points or 0.02% lower at 85,700 and NIFTY50 index declined 13 points to 26,203.

Nine of 15 major sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the NIFTY Auto index's 0.62% gain. NIFTY Media, Metal, Pharma, PSU Bank, Healthcare and Consumer Durables indices also rose between 0.1%-0.55%.

On the flipside, financial services, IT, realty, private bank, oil & gas shares faced a mild selling pressure.

Broader markets underperformed their larger peers and NIFTY Midcap 100 index declined 0.11% and NIFTY Smallcap 100 index fell 0.27%.

Among the individual shares, GAIL shares fell as much as 6.3% to ₹172.22 after the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) has approved an increase in pipeline tariff to ₹65.69 from ₹58.60/MMBtu. However, it is less than what GAIL had requested – ₹78/MMBtu.

Shares of One97 Communications, the parent entity of Paytm, rallied as much as 3.34% to hit a high of ₹1,336.40 following a positive research note by Goldman Sachs.

Goldman Sachs, as per news reports, said that the company's EBITDA margin will more than double over the next 3-4 years and that Paytm’s cost control has been a big positive surprise.

NIFTY50 gainers and losers

SBI Life was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock fell 1.72% to close at ₹1,970. HDFC Life, Power Grid, Shriram Finance, Eternal, Bharti Airtel, Infosys and Tata Consumer Products also fell between 0.51%-1.36%.

On the flipside, Mahindra & Mahindra was top gainer in the NIFTY50 index, the stock rose 2.17% a day after it launched electric SUV XEV 9S.

Adani Enterprises, Sun Pharma, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Eicher Motors, Hindustan Unilever, Dr Reddy's Labs and Bajaj Auto were also among the gainers.

The overall market breadth was marginally negative as 2,128 shares ended lower while 2,019 closed higher on the BSE.