Nifty falls below 9600-mark amid choppy session

Indian benchmark indices NSE Nifty and BSE Sensex closed flat on Friday. NSE Nifty closed at 9588, below the 9600-mark, although up by 10 points, while BSE Sensex closed lower by 19 points at 31056. BSE Mid-cap index closed higher 0.17% at 14807, whereas BSE Small-cap index closed with a gain of 0.14% at 15667. India VIX also closed down by 3.6% at 10.9 level. 
 
The oil companies' stocks witnessed a slump in intra-day trade, as Indian Oil Corporation became the top Nifty loser, even as HPCL lost significantly on the bourses. However, the aviation stocks gained during the day as crude oil prices slumped to 7-month low on Wednesday. Global Vectra Helicorp Ltd was the top gainer among the aviation stocks.  
 
The BSE Healthcare became the top losing index, with Sun Pharma and Lupin pulling down the index with over 2% and 4% loss each. Other pharma stocks, including Cipla, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Cadila Healthcare and Divi’s Labs also declined on the bourses. Information Technology stocks also slumped in Friday’s trading session, with Infosys being the top loser in the BSE IT index.
  
Tata Motors DVR, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ACC, UltraTech Cement and Tata Motors were the top gainers in Nifty, while Lupin, Sun Pharma, Cipla, Wipro and Indiabulls Housing Finance were the top Nifty losers.
 
As for the Asian markets, Shanghai was down by 0.30% at 3123.17, Japan's Nikkei was up by 0.56% and Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined by 0.24%. The European markets were trading with positive sentiments, with FTSE 100, EURO STOXX 50 and CAC 40 all trading in the green.