Indian shares flat, private sector lenders drag By Chandini Monnappa

BENGALURU: Indian shares were little changed on Friday, with losses in high-flying private sector lenders ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank countering gains in index heavyweight Reliance Industries.

The NSE Nifty 50 index was down 0.01% to 15,117.20 by 0444 GMT, while the S&P BSE Sensex was 0.06% lower at 51,291.93. Both indexes were on track to finish the week 0.7% lower after two straight weeks of gains.

"There is a sense that valuations in certain cases are stretched and some people are booking profits," said A.K. Prabhakar, head of research at IDBI Capital in Mumbai.

He said there might be some volatility and lower volumes on Friday as bigger players would stay out of the market due to a local holiday in the financial capital of Mumbai.

The top three drags on the Nifty 50 were ICICI Bank , HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank , each falling about 1%.

Private sector banks saw a rally in early February before investors began selling this week. For the month, they are still up 14.8%.

Reliance Industries Ltd rose 1.4% and was the top boost to the Nifty. Local media reported that the conglomerate's talks with Saudi Aramco for a stake sale were back on track.

State-run banks rose further, adding as much as 2.8% to hit a more than one-year high, and on track to finish the week over 16% higher.

Earlier this week, Reuters reported that India had shortlisted four state-run lenders for possible privatisation.

Oil India Ltd jumped 4% after the company in consortium with Engineers India decided to bid for Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd's 61.65% stake in Numaligarh Refinery Ltd.

Other Asian stock markets pulled back from record highs, as rising bond yields and disappointing US jobless data hurt investor confidence about a speedy economic recovery from the pandemic.