Mumbai May 12 (IANS) Profit booking after four consecutive sessions of gains pulled the Indian equity markets lower on Friday.
Besides market observers pointed out investors were cautious ahead of the release of the new series of Wholesale Price Index (WPI) Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data with the revised base year of 2011-12 which are slated to be released later in the evening.
Sentiments were also hampered by global cues and heavy selling pressure in banking consumer durables and healthcare stocks.
The wider 51-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) fell by 21.50 points or 0.23 per cent to close at 9 400.90 points.
The barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE which opened at 30 285.61 points closed at 30 188.15 points -- down 62.83 points or 0.21 per cent from its previous close at 30 250.98 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 30 299.74 points and a low of 30 111.45 points during the intra-day trade.
The BSE market breadth was bearish with 1 784 declines and 993 advances.
In terms of the broader markets the S&P BSE mid-cap index fell by 0.69 per cent and the small-cap index by 0.80 per cent.
Markets ended with marginal losses on Friday after four sessions of gains. The market cut losses in late trade after extending intra-day losses and hitting fresh intra-day low in mid-afternoon trade. Investors were cautious ahead of key economic data scheduled later in the day today Deepak Jasani Head (Retail Research) HDFC Securities told IANS.
Major Asian markets have ended on a mixed note. European indices like FTSE 100 CAC 40 and DAX traded higher on the back of the Bank of England yesterday 11 May 2017 leaving its key interest rate at 0.25 per cent.
Anand James Chief Market Strategist of Geojit Financial Services said: NPA (non-performing assets) worries have resurfaced after a banking major s report differed with the RBI s NPA classification and investors may be seeing this as a warning that there could be more such divergences over bad loan estimates.
Skymet s warning of weak monsoon also served to put brakes on recent rallies as much of the momentum was built on IMD s forecast for normal monsoons. This would mean that inflation numbers scheduled later in the day assumed more significance especially since there is a base year change.
On the currency front the rupee strengthened by eight paise to 64.30 per US dollar from its previous close of 64.38.
In investments provisional data with the exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors (FIIs) purchased stocks worth Rs 841.80 crore while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) divested scrip worth Rs 710.83 crore.
Dhruv Desai Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls said the equity benchmark Index CNX Nifty (futures) traded with bearish sentiments tracking mixed global cues and profit booking.
IT sector stocks outperformed the bearishness of the Indian equity markets on strong buying support. However shares of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals plunged as much as 16.50 per cent and registered their biggest intra-day fall in seven years after the company reported lower than expected financial results for the quarter ended March 31 2017 Desai told IANS.
Sectorwise the S&P BSE banking index fell by 231.74 points followed by the consumer durables index by 158.56 points and the healthcare index by 99.27 points.
On the other hand the S&P BSE IT index rose by 115.05 points the Teck (technology media and entertainment) index by 38.03 points and the automobile index by 26.85 points.
Major Sensex gainers on Friday were: Infosys up 2.12 per cent at Rs 963.90; Hero MotoCorp up 2.11 per cent at Rs 3 563.95; Cipla up 1 per cent at Rs 566.60; Sun Pharma up 0.81 per cent at Rs 653.60 and Tata Motors up 0.70 per cent at Rs 430.40.
Major Sensex losers were: Asian Paints down 3.04 per cent at Rs 1 132.30; Axis Bank down 2.80 per cent at Rs 502.60; ICICI Bank down 1.23 per cent at Rs 296.65; Adani Ports down 1.20 per cent at Rs 354.65; and HDFC down 0.96 per cent at Rs 1 546.70.
--IANS
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Indian equities slip on profit booking, caution ahead of macro-data release (Roundup)
