The Sensex and the Nifty ended the session near flat after a volatile trade. Both the indices posted their third consecutive weekly loss on concerns over rising tensions in West Asia.

The 30-share BSE index Sensex ended up by 1.06 points or 0.00 per cent at 27,458.64 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty ended down by 0.75 point or 0.01 per cent at 8,341.40.

Among BSE sectoral indices, capital goods index was the star-peformer and was up 1.32 per cent, followed by banking 1.07 per cent, IT 0.52 per cent and auto 0.43 per cent. On the other hand, oil & gas index fell the most by 1.54 per cent, followed by infrastructure 1.13 per cent, FMCG 1.04 per cent and healthcare 0.77 per cent.

Major Sensex gainers were Hindalco 2.97%, Infosys 2.68%, SBIN 2.59%, L&T 2.5% and ICICI Bank 2.23%, while the top five losers were Bharti Airtel 5.64%, Wipro 3.45%, Reliance 2.27%, ITC 1.72% and M&M 1.72%.

Foreign institutional investors sold Rs 521 crore ($83.22 million) worth of shares on Thursday, in a session that saw both indexes falling to their lowest since Janiuary 14 after Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies launched air strikes in Yemen. It was the first day of net sales by overseas funds in six sessions.

"We are advising people to be cautious as we see some more pain. Any fresh buy can happen only in the second week of April," said Suresh Parmar, head, institutional equities at KJMC Capital Markets.

Global markets

European shares were heading for their biggest weekly fall of the year on Friday, as a second week of gains for oil prices and periphery euro zone bond yields brought to a halt a two-month bonanza for the region’s equity markets.

Trading on the day was choppy with oil dropping back after Thursday’s spike and the world’s regional share and currency markets mixed as investors assessed the wider global impact of the rising tensions in West Asia.

Asian shares dropped overnight but the pan-European FTSEurofirst tip-toed higher as a 0.2 per cent fall for Britain’s FTSE was offset by 0.6 and 0.1 per cent gains on Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC 40.

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