Equity settles low; Nifty realty, PSU bank, media, auto in red (2nd Ld)

New Delhi, Feb 4 (IANS) India’s key benchmark equity indices — S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty50 — settled marginally in the red on Friday due to continued profit booking after the recent rally.Also, subdued global cues weighed on the broader market sentiment on Friday.Thus, Sensex settled at 58,644 points, down 0.2 per cent or 143 points, and Nifty at 17,516 points, down 0.3 per cent or 43 points.Among the sectoral indices, Nifty realty, PSU bank, media, and auto declined sharply during the session, while Nifty FMCG, IT, and metal rose.Among the specific stocks, Hero Motocorp, SBI, Mahindra & Mahindra, NTPC, and Eicher Motors were the top losers, while Hindalco, ONGC, Sun Pharma, Asian Paints and Divi’s Labs were the top runners.”The domestic market continued to ride yesterday’s downtrend with most sectors barring FMCG and Metal facing sell-off,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.”Western markets also lacked strength as the Bank of England imposed a back-to-back rate hike in yesterday’s policy meeting while the dovish ECB acknowledged the risk of rising inflation signalling a rate hike in the future. Wall Street remained highly volatile as a huge sell-off was seen in Meta (Facebook) post its earnings.”According to Rupak De, Senior Technical Analyst at LKP Securities: “Nifty remained volatile throughout the day with a bearish tone. The consolidation may continue in the short term as long as Nifty remains with the bands of 17,400 and 17,800. Any directional breakout in the near term may induce further significant move in the market.”–IANSad/pgh