The Sensex and the Nifty fell over 0.7 per cent at the closing session on Friday on sustained selling by funds and retail investors owing to weak global cues.

Domestic sentiment was also dampened as global credit rating agency Standard and Poor's had warned on Thursday that it may lower India's rating to speculative grade from investment grade next year if the government that wins the general election fails to provide a credible plan to reverse the country's low economic growth.

The 30-share BSE index Sensex was down 156.62 points (0.75 per cent) at 20,666.15 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was down 46.5 points (0.75 per cent) at 6,140.75.

Among BSE sectoral indices, consumer durables, banking, oil & gas and PSU indices fell the most by 2.04 per cent, 1.27 per cent, 1.19 per cent and 0.69 per cent, respectively.

On the other hand, realty, capital goods, power and metal indices remained investors' favourite and were up 1.27 per cent, 1.15 per cent, 0.61 per cent and 0.35 per cent, respectively.

Ranbaxy, Tata Steel, DLF, Tata Motors and JP Associates were the top five Nifty gainers, while the top five losers were Axis Bank, PNB, HDFC, ACC and M&M.

European stocks were down and Asian shares fell to their lowest level in a month ahead of US payrolls data.

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