Closing bell: Equity indices end flat, private banks outperform

Equity benchmark indices ended flat on Friday but private banks showed some gains despite a volatile trading session.

The BSE SandP Sensex closed 13 points or 0.02 per cent higher at 51,544 but the Nifty 50 fell by 10 points or 0.07 per cent to 15,163.Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed with Nifty private bank and financial service up by 0.9 per cent.

But Nifty FMCG was down by 1.5 per cent and metal by 1.7 per cent.

Among stocks, ICICI Bank climbed up by 2.6 per cent to Rs 647.50 per share while Axis Bank surged ahead by 1.2 per cent, HDFC Bank by 0.8 per cent and State Bank of India by 0.7 per cent.

The other gainers included Adani Ports, Infosys, Wipro, HDFC, Bajaj Finserv and Grasim.

However, diversified conglomerate ITC was down by 3.8 per cent to Rs 217.70 per share after reporting a consolidated net profit of Rs 3,587 crore in Q3 FY21, down 11 per cent from Rs 4,050 crore year-on-year.Energy majors Coal India, ONGC, GAIL and NTPC along with metal giants Tata Steel and Hindalco were also in the negative territory.