Shares of IT majors have lost up to 2% on the BSE on caution ahead of the key US jobs report which is scheduled to be released later during the day. TCS, Infosys and Wipro lost between 1.5-2%.
Benchamrk indices lost nearly half a percent each in late trades on the last trading day of the week as investors booked profit in several heavyweights like Infosys, TCS, ICICI Bank and Sun Pharma.
The slide could have been much sharper had it not been for gains in ITC and M&M.
For the day, the Sensex was down 105 points at 28,458 and the Nifty was down 26 points to close at 8,538.
The broader markets were no different.
In the last leg of trade, the mid and smallcap surrendered almost all its gains and closed on a flat note.
The smallcap index was almost unchanged and the midcap index was down 0.3%.
Defensive pockets like IT, Teck and Health Care indices were top losers, down upto 2%.
Power, Oil & Gas and Capital indices were the other sectoral losers, down 0.4-0.6%.
Auto and Bankex were flat with a negative bias.
Shares of IT majors have lost up to 2% on the BSE on caution ahead of the key US jobs report which is scheduled to be released later during the day. TCS, Infosys and Wipro lost between 1.5-2%.
Pharma shares were the other prominent losers. Dr Reddys Lab, Sun Pharma lost over 2% along with Cipla which shed 1.7%.
Auto stocks were mixed. M&M and Bajaj Auto gained 2% and 0.1% while Maruti, Tata Motors and Hero MotoCorp were down upto1.3%.
ITC extended gains up 2.3% and was the top Sensex gainer after media reports suggested that the government was reconsidering a proposal to ban sale of loose cigarettes.
However, HUL was down 0.5%.
Barring HDFC twins which was up 0.2% each, all the other banking names closed in red.
Metal names like Hindalco, Tata Steel were down 1.5% and 0.3% respectively while Sesa Sterlite added another 2% in today's trade.
Kicking off its disinvestment drive on a positive note, the government's share sale offer in steel major SAIL got over-subscribed today by nearly 1.5 times with almost an hour still left for bidding, ensuring at least Rs 1,500 crore to the exchequer.
The stock was down 3%.
The offer for over 20 crore shares of SAIL received robust response from retail investors, to whom the government offered 5% price discount and reserved 10% or over 2 crore shares.
In individual stocks, Amal was locked in lower circuit of 20% at Rs 31.35, falling 28% from intra-day high on BSE, after the boards of Amal and Atul approved a merger with a swap ratio of one shares of Atul for every 50 shares of the Amal.
Selan Exploration Technology gained nearly 5% at Rs 398 after the Reserve Bank of India in a notification on Thursday withdrew the restrictions placed on the purchase of shares by by Non-Resident Indians (NRI)/Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) under the Portfolio Investment Scheme with immediate effect.
Global Markets
European markes started on a strong note on ECB President Mario Draghi's comment that the central bank's commitment to supporting the euro zone economy. CAC, DAX and FTSE were up 0.7-1.4%.
Asian shares drifted while the dollar marked time on Friday ahead of the key U.S. jobs report later in the session that could help it retake ground lost to the euro overnight.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.1%, on track for a weekly loss of 0.8%.
Japan's Nikkei stock average slipped 0.2%, but was on track for a weekly gain of more than 2%.
