Equity benchmark indices traded within a narrow range on Friday as surging Covid cases became an area of serious concern with several cities declaring night curfews Market experts said unless this second wave peaks soon and subsides, economic activity will be impacted and uncertainty will weigh on investor sentiments. The BSE S&P Sensex closed 155 points or 0.31% lower at 49,591 while the Nifty 50 slipped by 39 points or 0.26% to 14,835. Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed with Nifty private banks down by 0.9% and financial service by 0.7 per cent. But Nifty PSU bank rose by 2% and pharma by 3%. Among stocks, Axis Bank closed 2% lower at Rs 668.05 per share while ICICI Bank lost by 1.8% to Rs 565.95. Bajaj Finance skidded by 3% to close at Rs 4,878 per share. UPL, UltraTech Cement, Tata Steel, NTPC, Coal India and IndianOil Corporation too were in the negative zone. However, pharma major Cipla jumped by 5.3% to Rs 836.95 per share. Sun Pharma too gained by 3.5% and Dr Reddy's by 1.6%. The other prominent winners were Hindustan Lever, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Tata Motors, JSW Steel and Titan. Meanwhile, Asian equities were in a choppy trading session after technology stocks lifted the S&P 500 to a new record. Investors weighed an unexpected rise in the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits. Japan's Nikkei was up by 0.2% but Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rolled down by 1.07%. South Korea's Kospi too fell by 0.36%.