Benchmark share indices ended marginally higher on Friday after index heavyweight Reliance Industries and FMCG major ITC reversed early losses to end higher.
The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended up 107 points at 16,756 and the 50-share Nifty ended up 31 points at 5,081.
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(Updated at 14:29 hrs)
Benchmark share indices were trading lower in late noon trades on Friday, amid a weakening rupee and negative global cues, as investors booked profits at higher levels after gains in the past two sessions.
At 2:28PM the 30-share Sensex was down 130 points at 16,519 and the 50-share Nifty was down 43 points at 5,006.
Stocks in Asia declined on Friday, on concerns that host of May economic data from China due for release over the week end could be discouraging. The Nikkei ended down over 2% because of drop in current account surplus. Among other Asian indices, Hang Seng, Shanghai and Straits Times were down 0.5-0.9% each.
European shares were trading lower on Friday on renewed worries over banking crisis in Spain and Germany's trade deficit widened with imports surpassing exports after seasonal adjustment. Further, the recent rate cut by China raised concerns that economic growth in the world's second largest economy could be slowing down. The CAC-40, DAX and FTSE were all down over 1% each.
The Indian rupee depreciated by 68 paise and was trading at Rs 55.58 to the US dollar following renewed demand for the US greenback.
Profit booking was seen in index heavyweights Reliance Industries and Infosys along with rate sensitive share which had surged during the week on hopes of a rate cut by the RBI at its policy meet on June 18.
In the Sensex pack, Software major Infosys was down 2% at Rs 2,400 after recent gains while TCS was trading lower by 0.9% at Rs 1,230.
Reliance Industries was marginally down on profit booking after the stock surged to nearly Rs 732 in intra-day trade Thursday after the company's chairman Mukesh Ambani said RIL aims to double profit in five years and plans to invest Rs 1 lakh crore across businesses.
Among the rate sensitives, bank shares which had led the rally over the past few sessions also witnessed profit booking. ICICI Bank was down 1.8% at Rs 815, HDFC Bank fell 1.1% and SBI was down 1.4% at Rs 2,137, mortgage lender HDFC was down 0.8% at Rs 650.
Auto shares were also down on profit booking after they had gained on Thursday on hopes the government will decide against imposing excise duty on diesel vehicle sales. Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra and Maruti Suzuki were down 0.8%-2.4%.
Among other Sensex losers include, ITC down 0.4% and ONGC fell 2.5%.
Among other shares, Inox Leisure and Fame India are trading higher by 3% each on announcing merger plans. “The board of directors of both the companies will meet on June 15, 2012, to consider amalgamation of multiplex chain Fame India and its existing wholly owned subsidiaries namely, Fame Motion Pictures Limited, Big Pictures Hospitality Services Private Limited and Headstrong Films Private Limited with its parent entity, Inox Leisure Limited,” the company said in a filing to the stock exchanges.
The broader markets were marginally down with the BSE Mid-cap index down 0.5% and the BSE Small-cap index down 0.2%.
Market breadth continued to remain weak with 1,503 losers and 1,080 gainers on the BSE.
