An evening walk down Dalal Street | Sensex ends flat, Nifty fails to hold 11,700 on Day 1 of September series

Equities did not have the best of their starts to a new series, with the Nifty ending the first day of September series below 11,700-mark. However, bulls did manage to battle it out well with the bears as the market was off its low points.

A weak rupee, higher crude oil prices along with selloff in midcaps were one of the major reasons behind the downtrend on the market. The Indian currency fell to an all-time, historic low of 71 to the US dollar, before settling around 70.88 to the dollar at the time of equity markets coming to a close.

Banks were the major laggards on Friday, led by losses in names such as Yes Bank. Another index heavyweight, Reliance Industries, fell around 3 percent, managed to weigh on equity benchmarks. The Bank Nifty was largely lower through the day, along with weakness among metals, auto and energy names. Traditional defensives, IT and pharmaceuticals were the major gainers through the session. However, last hour buying also helped PSU banks end in the green.

At the close of market hours, the Sensex closed down 45.03 points or 0.12% at 38645.07, while the Nifty was lower by 2.10 points or 0.02% at 11674.70. The market breadth is positive 1,423 shares advanced, against a decline of 1,234 shares, while 193 shares were unchanged.

Tata Motors, Power Grid, Dr Reddy’s and Tech Mahindra were the top gainers, while Yes Bank and Reliance Industries lost the most.

Stocks in news:

State-owned Steel Authority of India’s (SAIL) shares were down 1.4 percent, after the company declined a government call for a dividend this year, citing financial risks, Reuters reports.

Shares of Yes Bank fell almost 5 percent even as clarity emerged on its MD Rana Kapoor’s reappointment. Late on Thursday, the bank told exchanges that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had approved the continuance of Kapoor to lead the bank till further notice. Analysts are wary of the uncertainty around this appointment too.

Shares of Mindtree gained 5.6 percent as company formed a partnership with GHD Digital. GHD Digital and Mindtree collaborating on a broad Digital platform targeted to the property and infrastructure sectors.

Share price of Tata Motors advanced 2.6 percent after the foreign research firm, Goldman Sachs, maintained its neutral call on the stock with a target price of Rs 283 and potential upside of 9 percent.

Shares of Lupin added 4.3 percent as the company received USFDA approval for generic potassium chloride oral solution USP.

Global update:

Markets in Europe were lower as investors were wary of trade war fears between US and China. Stoxx 600 was down around 0.7 percent.

Meanwhile, markets in Asia were largely down on the back of weak handover from Wall Street after President Trump said that he was going ahead with imposing tariffs on Chinese goods.

The Nikkei 225 recovered from some of its earlier losses to end the week largely flat at 22,865.15 even though most sectors slipped. South Korea's Kospi bucked the trend by closing up 0.67 percent to 2,322.88, as industry heavyweight Samsung Electronics gained 1.68 percent.