Heavy fund outflows, along with a continuous rise in global crude oil prices and caution ahead of key micro-economic data, dragged the Indian equity market into the red on Friday.
Accordingly, the benchmark Brent crude futures price crossed the $62 a-barrel-mark.
Index-wise, the NSE Nifty50 declined by 33.55 points or 0.31 per cent to settle at 10,821.60 points.
The S&P BSE Sensex closed at 36,009.84 points, lower by 96.66 points or 0.27 per cent from the previous close of 36,106.50 points.
It had opened at 36,191.87 points and touched an intra-day high of 36,214.26 and a low of 35,840.60.
Besides, investors were cautious ahead of the key macro-economic figures like forex reserves, industrial production output figures.
"Stock markets in India opened the day on a positive note and edged higher in early trade," said Abhijeet Dey, Senior Fund Manager-Equities, BNP Paribas Mutual Fund.
"However, indices subsequently reversed trend and turned negative to finally close the day with marginal losses. Overseas, stocks in Asia and Europe were trading higher as investor sentiment improved following overnight gains on Wall Street."
The Indian rupee ended the Friday's trade session at Rs 70.49 to a dollar from its previous close of 70.41.
"Despite positive global cues, Nifty saw a broad based consolidation today as investors turned cautious over Q3 results and FII selling," Geojit Financial Services' Head Of Research Vinod Nair said.
"Currently, market is pricing (factoring) further downgrade in earnings given disappointment from initial set of results from banks and margin pressure in IT sector. INR is losing strength given rebound in oil prices on the back of production cut by OPEC and concern over populist tone as general elections nears."
Investment-wise, FIIs sold Rs 687.20 crore while DIIs bought stocks worth over Rs 123.17 crore on Friday.
"Technically, with the Nifty correcting further, traders will need to watch if the index can now hold above the immediate supports of 10,739; else a further correction is likely,"said Deepak Jasani of HDFC Securities.
In terms of sector, IT, banking and finance counters witnessed heavy selling.
Realty sector stocks also ended 1.43 per cent lower after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said at Thursday's GST Council Meeting that owing to diverse opinions, a decision on the much-expected rate reduction for under-construction homes will be taken at a later meeting.
Stock-wise, the top gainers on Sensex were ITC with 2.02 per cent It was followed by ONGC Vedanta, Infosys and Axis Bank rising up to 1 per cent.
In contrast, IndusInd Bank lost 3.26 per cent followed by Tata Motors which lost 2.83 per cent. TCS, Tata Motors (DVR) declined over 2 per cent. Yes Bank lost 1.47 per cent.
--IANS
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