Markets ended lower on Friday as investors booked profits after benchmark share indices gained nearly 6% in last 14 trading sessions following the government's reforms to attract foreign direct investment in retail, aviation and financial sectors.
The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended down 140 points at 18,918 and the 50-share Nifty provisionally ended down 46 points at 5,741.
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(Updated at 14:29 hrs)
Markets have recovered from their day lows in late noon deals after gains in auto share helped offset some of the losses in financials and software shares. Further, the lower growth forecast by the International Monetary Fund also dampened sentiment.
At 2:28PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 152 points at 18,906 after touching an intra-day low of 18,757 and the 50-share Nifty was down 53 points at 5,734 after touching an intra-day low of 4,888.
The IMF has cut India's growth forecast to 6% for 2013 versus a previous forecast of 6.6%
Asian shares rose as investor risk aversion eased after the European Central Bank said it was ready to buy bonds of troubled euro zone countries, while markets awaited a key U.S. jobs report.
Japan's Nikkei average hit a one-week high on Friday, lifted by gains in some battered cyclical stocks, but Nikon Corp tumbled on reports of poor earnings and carmakers were sold off on concern about plummeting sales in China. Jakarta Composite, Hang Seng, Nikkei and Straits Times up 0.4-0.9% led the pack in the region.
Among the sectoral indices, IT, Bankex and Healthcare were the top losers down over 1% each while Consumer Durables, Auto and FMCG indices were up 0.4-1%.
HDFC was the top Sensex loser down 4.7% on back of multiple block deals on the NSE and BSE. According to reports, global private equity major, Carlyle Group, offloaded its 3.71% residual stake for about Rs 4,500 crore.
Bank shares also witnessed profit taking after sharp gains recently. ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and SBI were down 1-1.6% each.
Software shares were down on concerns that the sharp appreciation in the Indian rupee against the US dollar would hurt revenues. All major companies earn most of their revenues from export of software to the US. TCS, Wipro and Infosys were down 0.8-1.9% each.
Gains in auto and FMCG stocks helped markets recover from their day lows. Tata Motors was up 2% while Mahindra & Mahindra was up 1.2%. FMCG majors Hindustan Unilever was up 1.5% while ITC was marginally up.
Among other stocks, Emkay Global Financial Services has locked in lower circuit of 10% at Rs 31.10 after the National Stock Exchange blamed brokerage firm for the erroneous trades amounting of over Rs 650 crore.
“The market circuit filter got triggered due to entry of 59 erroneous orders which resulted in multiple trades for an aggregate value of over Rs 650 crore. These orders have been entered by a trading member Emkay Global Financial Services on behalf of an institutional client," NSE said in a statement.
In the broader markets, the Mid-cap index was down 0.9% while the Small-cap eased 1.1%.
The market breadth was negative. 1889 stocks declines as against 880 advances on the BSE.