Stock markets give up early gains; trade lower dragged down by Axis Bank

From the Sensex firms, Axis Bank declined 3.50& after the country's third largest private sector lender reported a marginal decline in March quarter profit to Rs 7,117 crore from Rs 7,130 crore in the year-ago period.

Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty rebounded in early trade on Friday amid continuous foreign fund inflows and a rally in global markets, but failed to carry forward the winning momentum and were later trading lower dragged lower by Axis Bank.

The 30-share BSE benchmark gauge climbed 329.23 points to 80,130.66 in early trade. The NSE Nifty rallied 118.75 points to 24,365.45.

However, later both the benchmark indices gave up early gains and were trading lower. The BSE benchmark traded 174.24 points lower at 79,627.19, and the Nifty quoted 94.35 points down at 24,152.35.

From the Sensex firms, Axis Bank declined 3.50 per cent after the country's third largest private sector lender reported a marginal decline in March quarter profit to Rs 7,117 crore from Rs 7,130 crore in the year-ago period.

Adani Ports, Bajaj Finance, Bajaj Finserv, Tata Motors, Tech Mahindra and Eternal were also among the laggards.

However, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Reliance Industries, HCL Tech, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank were the biggest gainers.

In Asian markets, South Korea's Kospi index, Tokyo's Nikkei 225, Shanghai SSE Composite and Hong Kong's Hang Seng were trading in the positive territory.

US markets ended significantly higher on Thursday. Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.74 per cent, S&P 500 surged 2.03 per cent and Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1.23 per cent.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) bought equities worth Rs 8,250.53 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.53 per cent to USD 66.90 a barrel.

The 30-share BSE benchmark declined 315.06 points or 0.39 per cent to settle at 79,801.43 on Thursday. The Nifty went down by 82.25 points or 0.34 per cent to 24,246.70.