A benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed Friday's trade nearly a percent down amidst volatility arising ahead of quarterly current account deficit figures which are due on Monday. Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan's comments on inflationary pressure also led to bearish sentiment in the market.
The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 19,951.73 points, closed at 19,727.27 points, down 166.58 points or 0.84 percent from its previous day's close at 19,893.85 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 19,981.57 points and a low of 19,674.38 points in the day's trade.
The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also fell 49.05 points or a mere 0.83 percent at 5,833.20 points.
"Markets ended the week on a weak note, falling by about one percent on Friday. Markets were negatively surprised last week by the 25 basis points repo rate hike by the RBI," said Dipen Shah, head of private client group research Kotak Securities.
"Consequently, most of the banking and other interest rate sensitive stocks under-performed for the week."
More From This Section
Sector-wise, bank, metal, capital goods, consumer durables and automobile company's scrip tanked.
However, healthy buying spree was observed in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), oil and gas and information technology (IT) stocks.
The S&P BSE bank index gained 210.39 points, metal index was lower by 140.09 points, capital goods index closed the day's trade down 114.19 points, followed by consumer durables index which was lower by 61.41 points, and automobile index dipped by 30.78 points.
Buying support was observed in FMCG index, which gained by 29.27 points, oil and gas index was up 12.19 points, while IT index rose 5.49 points.
The prominent Sensex gainers were: Hero MotoCorp, up 1.64 percent at Rs.2,048.20; Sun Pharma, up 1.45 percent at Rs.589.75; Coal India, up 1.12 percent at Rs.307.05; Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), up 0.25 percent at Rs.236.50; and Jindal Steel, up 0.31 percent at Rs.1,947.15.
The losers were: BHEL, down 4.29 percent at Rs.143.95; Tata Steel, down 3.89 percent at Rs.287.85; Bharti Airtel, down 2.84 percent at Rs.325.10; Hindalco Inds, down 2.73 percent at Rs.113.85; and ICICI Bank, down 2.31 percent at Rs.923.30.
Global cues were weak. Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.26 percent down. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was higher by 0.35 percent while China's Shanghai Composite Index was 0.25 percent up.
In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.85 percent down and Germany's DAX Index was lower by 0.31 percent. The French CAC 40 Index was also down by 0.24 percent.