Indian shares fell on Friday, marking their biggest weekly loss in eight, as blue-chips such as Tata Motors slumped on weak earnings and on worries that the Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party may face defeat in the upcoming Delhi state elections.
With various opinion polls predicting an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) victory in the Delhi Assembly election, the stock market appears to be getting the jitters. This is being touted as a reason for the fall in the indices.
The broader NSE index fell 50.65 points or 0.58 per cent to 8,661.05 for the day, dropping 1.67 percent for the week, while the benchmark BSE index lost 133.06 points or 0.46 per cent to 28,717.91, mark a weekly fall of 1.6 per cent.
The indexes extended their losing streak for a sixth consecutive session to mark their biggest weekly loss since December 12, 2014.
Among BSE sectoral indices, auto index fell the most by 2.77 per cent, followed by healthcare 1.72 per cent, banking 1.27 per cent and power 1.25 per cent. On ther other hand, IT index was up 0.89 per cent, FMCG 0.84 per cent and TECk 0.74 per cent.
Major Sensex gainers were HDFC 2.45%, Infosys 1.63%, SSLT 1.35%, ITC 1.32% and Bharti Airtel 1.14%, while the top five losers were Tata Motors 5.05%, BHEL 4.79%, Sun Pharma 2.98%, Tata Steel 2.67% and M&M 2.59%.
European stocks dipped on Friday, with regional indexes pausing just below recent multi-year highs, as investors looked to the January US non-farm payrolls report due later in the session.
Asian trading was largely uneventful. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up about 0.1 per cent, on track for a weekly gain of more than 1 per cent.
Japan’s Nikkei ended up 0.8 per cent but marked a slight weekly loss, after shedding 1 per cent on Thursday, while most Asian currencies were on course for weekly gains.