Business Standard Podcast

Benchmark indices ended marginally lower on Friday led by a fall in ICICI Bank, State Bank of India (SBI), HDFC, RIL and Axis Bank. The S&P BSE Sensex ended at 36,671, down 54 points while the broader Nifty50 index settled at 11,035, down 23 points. Among sectoral indices, Nifty Metal index ended 1.5 per cent lower with Jindal Steel & Power and MOIL among the top losers. The Nifty IT index, too, settled 1.1 per cent lower, dragged by Wipro and Infibeam Avenues In the broader market, the S&P BSE MidCap index ended 12 points, or 0.08 per cent lower at 14,804, while the S&P BSE SmallCap index settled at 14,529, down 11 points, or 0.08 per cent. Shares of Wipro fell 5 per cent to Rs 256 in intra-day trade on the BSE in after huge block deals were executed on the counter. Till 11:22 am, a combined 57.86 million equity shares, representing 1.3 per cent equity, of Wipro had changed hands on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) and BSE. The stock ended at Rs 256.50, down 4.6 per cent. Shares of Allahabad Bank hit a 52-week high of Rs 58.20, up 6.5 per cent on the BSE in the intra-day trade, extending its past three weeks' rally after the government announced capital infusion of Rs 6,896 crore in the bank.The stock settled 4.39 per cent higher at Rs 57.05.