On Friday, the Indian benchmark indices behaved in exactly the opposite of Thursday.

After being in the green until 1.35 pm, the markets went down to close in the red. The Nifty shed 20 points to close at 4,714 while the Sensex lost 79 points to close at 15,734.55.

Analysts said lack of confidence on the street was the main reason for this type of behaviour.

“The Government has all the right to pledge or sell the shares of L&T, Axis Bank and ITC held by the Special Undertaking – Unit Trust of India,” said a dealer from an Indian brokerage.

“They should have just done it. By announcing the proposal, the markets got a signal that the Government has become desperate and can do whatever it takes to raise funds and bridge the fiscal deficit. That is the problem.”

Volatility was up two per cent and the India Vix closed at 27.39.

Siemens, BHEL, Grasim, Wipro and Axis Bank were the top five Nifty gainers while Ranbaxy, NTPC, RCom, BPCL and IDFC were the top losers.

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