Snapping its three-session winning streak, benchmark Sensex fell 27 points to end at 29,620.50 on the last trading day of 2016-17.

The broad-based NSE Nifty ended flat at 9,173.75 after shuttling between 9,191.70 and 9,152.10.

However, both the indices ended FY17 with impressive gains of up to 18.55 per cent, mainly driven by robust foreign fund inflows and reform measures like the GST.

Among BSE sectoral indices, oil & gas index was the star-performer--gaining 1.85 per cent, followed by metal 1.13 per cent, capital goods 0.98 per cent and consumer durables 1.05 per cent. On the other hand, FMCG index was down 0.36 per cent, banking 0.73 per cent, TECk 0.29 per cent and IT 0.31 per cent.

Top five Sensex gainers were Reliance (+3.93%), NTPC (1.59%), L&T (+1.28%), Maruti (+1.18), Tata Steel (0.94 per cent), Coal India (+0.91%) and SBI (+0.90%), while the major losers were Axis Bank (-1.65%), ICICI Bank (-1.53%), HDFC Bank (-1.47%), HDFC (-1.37%), HUL (-1.03%), Cipla (-0.90%),TCS (-0.85%) and ITC (-0.76%).

NSE hits record high

The NSE index has however advanced 3.1 per cent this month after hitting a record high of 9,218.40 on March 17, spurred by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's win in Uttar Pradesh and net foreign inflows of $4.67 billion into equity markets as of March 30.

For the quarter, the NSE index rose 11.9 per cent, its best performance since the April-June quarter of 2014 when Modi was elected to power.

In the 2016/17 fiscal year so far, the NSE has surged 18.5 per cent, rebounding from an 8.9 per cent fall in the previous financial year.

Corporate earnings

Analysts say they expect markets to take a breather in the short-term as investors brace for corporate results starting mid-April.

“There could me some more profit-booking happening in the market. Next week could see some breather in terms of FII (foreign institutional investor) inflows as well as caution ahead of earnings season and monsoon data,” said Siddhartha Khemka, head of research at Centrum Wealth.

Education services provider CL Educate slumped on market debut, falling as much as 21 per cent from its IPO price of Rs 502.

Global markets

World stocks dipped on Friday as investors locked in some of the more than 6 per cent gain that has given them their best start to year since 2012, while the dollar inched towards what could be its strongest week of 2017 so far.

Asian and European shares both saw profit-taking as traders squared up for the quarter, though there was plenty still going, not least in South Africa where the sacking of its respected finance minister sent the rand tumbling again.

The dollar had its tail up after US growth data, talk of as many as three more Fed rate hikes this year and the best Chinese manufacturing data in nearly 5 years, though even that couldn't prevent commodity markets wilting.

Oil was back under $53 a barrel, metals were down 1 per cent and Europe's Basic Resources index, where big miners are listed, fell 1.7 per cent to leave London's FTSE and the pan-European STOXX 600 index down 0.5-0.6 per cent.

The later was still on track for a 5 per cent rise and third straight quarterly gain in a row, although emerging markets have been the big winners. MSCI's EM stocks index is up 12.5 per cent on a dollar-adjusted basis.

In Asia, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan retreated 0.55 per cent after its 12.5 per cent charge over the quarter.

Hong Kong shares fell 0.6 per cent, but were still headed for a 9.8 per cent quarterly jump and China's CSI 300 index added 0.4 per cent, putting it on track for a 4.3 per cent quarterly rise.

“Asia saw some pretty healthy profit-taking after a few sessions of solid gains, and as investors await euro zone and U.S. inflation data tonight,” said James Woods, global investment analyst at Rivkin Securities in Sydney.

Next week promises to an interesting start to the second quarter.

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