Indian stock markets ended on a split on Friday—while the BSE Sensex closed slightly in the red, marking its longest weekly losing streak in six years, the much broader NSE Nifty saw its third straight session of gains.
The geopolitical dance, higher global interest rates, and crude oil hovering above $100 pushed the 30-pack down 0.65 per cent over the week.
This marked a losing trend of six consecutive weeks, the last time it did that was in the pandemic year of 2020.
The Sensex did start Friday morning strong by gaining 400 points but the closing auction session saw it slip past its previous close by more than 19 points to settle at 74,294.96.
The 50-share Nifty, however, closed at 23,346.40 by gaining more than 75 points.
Why did Sensex and Nifty diverge?
The two Indian benchmark indices moved away from one another due to the following:
One, the Sensex was dragged by its heavy concentration of sharply falling tech heavyweights and Tata Group shares.
Two, Nifty's broader constituents absorbed these losses through gains in banking, energy, and life insurance, like HDFC Life and SBI Life.
Easing oil prices did help keep matters from getting any worse, with Brent crude dropping over one per cent to around $103.4 dollars per barrel.
But this "crude" relief was offset by the tussle atop the Tata Group. Many Tata stocks plummeted after Tata Trusts declared the resolution reappointing N. Chandrasekaran as executive chairman void. Shares of Tata Chemicals, TCS, and Titan fell sharply, throwing cold water on the secondary market.
The massive ₹22,569-crore IPO of NSE added to liquidity concerns in the secondary market, which was constrained as capital moved into the primary market. It was to this mix that the relentless FII selloff added pressure. Foreign institutional investors were spooked at elevated US bond yields.
The silver lining, however, was the bargain buying, especially in the Nifty.
