A benchmark index of Indian equities markets fell for the fourth consecutive day Friday by 42 points or 0.20 percent as capital goods stocks faced selling pressure.
The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 20,725.52 points, closed at 20,683.52 points, down 41.91 points or 0.20 percent from the previous day's close at 20,725.52 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 20,782.16 points and a low of 20,622.55 intra-day.
The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also closed in the negative territory. It ended at 6,144.90 points, down 19.45 points or 0.32 percent.
"Markets traded in a narrow range for the entire week after witnessing significant gains in the October series," said Sahaj Agrawal, deputy vice president - derivatives research, Kotak Securities.
Healthy buying spree was observed in information technology (IT), technology, entertainment and media (TECk) and consumer durables stocks. However, heavy selling pressure was observed in automobile, metal and capital goods.
The S&P BSE IT index gained 128 points, while TECk index was up 46.27 points and the consumer durables index was higher by 14.5 points.
However, capital goods index was lower by 145.53 points; automobile index was down 141.45 points; and metal index moved lower by 110.85 points.
The major Sensex gainers were Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), up 2.92 percent at Rs.2,067.30; Wipro, up 2.07 percent at Rs.481.05; Sesa Sterlite, up 1.84 percent at Rs.202.20; NTPC, up 1.36 percent at Rs.145.20; and Infosys, up 0.64 percent at Rs.3,331.
The losers in the day's trade were Hindalco Inds, down 4.71 percent at Rs.109.15; Tata Steel, down 3.09 percent at Rs.321.85; Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), down 2.48 percent at Rs.867.70; Hindustan Unilever, down 2.33 percent at Rs.594.20; and Gail India, down 2.23 percent at Rs.343.55.
Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 2.75 percent down, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.60 percent, and China's Shanghai Composite Index moved lower by 1.45 percent.
In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.16 percent higher, and Germany's DAX Index was up 0.07 percent. The French CAC 40 Index was, however, lower by 0.12 percent.
