The Indian equity headline indices gave up opening gains to slide over 1 percent during the session Friday as rising Omicron cases kept investors on the edge. The market dragged by the likes of pharma and PSU stocks regained the lost ground by the time session ended and closed less than half a percent lower. Reliance Industries and IT stocks lent some support to the indices.

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The 30-scrip Sensex closed at 57,124, as it fell 190 points and the Nifty50 index declined 70 points to end at 17,000. The broader markets underperformed the benchmarks, as both mid-caps and small-caps lost 1 and 0.5 percent, respectively. The market breadth favours the declines, with two stocks falling for every one that rose.

Among sectoral gauges, a strong rally was seen in the IT sector as it surged over a percent higher. Other indices closed in the red, with Nifty PSU Bank declining nearly 2 percent and Nifty Realty ending over 1.5 percent lower.

Among the 50 stocks on Nifty, HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra, SBI Life, Wipro, Asian Paints led the gains, as each scrip rose over 0.5 to 3 percent. Leading the losses were Grasim, NTPC, IOC, Eicher Motors, and Axis Bank. Tech Mahindra hit intra-day high. Unlock stocks lost ground today amid fresh restrictions from Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Meanwhile, shares of defence solutions provider Data Patterns (India) made a strong debut in the Mumbai market, listing at a premium of 48 percent.

Globally, record-high world stocks slowed their charge due to Omicron concerns. Asian stocks lost ground and the MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan were flat at 0.1 percent. Japan's Nikkei was down 0.05 percent, and Chiense stocks were down over half a percent.

European stocks were in the green though, with Germany's DAX up over 1 percent. The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up over 1 percent as well. Nasdaq futures and S&P 500 futures were up over half a percent.

Over in commodities, oil prices were trading mixed with brent crude down over 1 percent to $75.82 and the US oil up over 1 percent to $73.76.

With inputs from Reuters

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(Edited by : Yashi Gupta)

First Published:Dec 24, 2021 3:42 PM IST