Fears of more "uncertainty" over increasing tension between India and Pakistan after the Indian Army carried out surgical strikes on terror camps along the Line of Control LoC) in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on Thursday morning did not impact the stock markets on Friday.
The BSE Sensex was actually with a minor gain of 5 points at 27,832 at around 10.10 a.m. after opening with a modest loss. The NSE Nifty was up 7 points at 8,598.
Top Sensex losers were Adani Ports, Cipla and Bharti Airtel while the 30-scrip benchmark index was getting some support from GAIL (India), ONGC and State Bank of India.
Top Nifty 50 gainers were Grasim, GAIL (India), Bank of Baroda, ONGC and Aurobindo Pharma.
ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, which had a tepid listing on Thursday and closed at a discount to its issue price of Rs. 334, gained 2.18 percent and was trading at Rs. 304.35 at around 10.23 a.m.
Among sectoral indices on the BSE, the Bankex was up 0.30 percent, Auto 0.70 percent and CPSE 0.59 percent.
The Indian government also allayed fears of instability in Indian stock and currency markets as a result of Indian Army's operations along the LoC.
The markets opened on a negative note on expected lines due to a combination of multiple headwinds.
"Indian markets are likely to open on a negative note considering domestic and global cues. The US markets witnessed a selloff fuelled by investor worry about European banks and talk of a December rate increase by the Fed," brokerage Angel Broking said in its pre-market opening note on Friday.
Investors were worried about Deutsche BankAG, which has been buffeted by concerns about the health of its balance sheet, specifically its ability to withstand a potential $14 billion fine from the US Justice Department. The US economic data released on Thursday showed that US economy continues to improve which further sparked rate hike fears," it added.
Thursday's fall of more than 400 points was the highest since the Brexit-triggered crash in June, Angel Broking said.
