Sensex down for 2nd week as global growth worries return

Mumbai: The BSE Sensex slipped by a marginal 34 points Friday to log its fourth fall in five sessions as fresh global growth worries following lacklustre factory data and tepid domestic earnings pulled down local indices for a second straight week.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) remained cautious in view of pessimism over the US Jobs data coming today.

On a weekly basis, both the indices recorded their second weekly fall with Sensex plunging 378.12 points or 1.47 percent and Nifty dropping 116.45 points or 1.48 percent.

Asia and Europe were also lower ahead of the US data.

"The market continued to be lacklustre as recent gloomy manufacturing data from global market dampened the interest of equity investors," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.

The BSE index settled 33.71 points or 0.13 percent lower at 25,228.50 after shuttling between 25,057.93 and 25,260.48. The index had risen by 160.48 points to log a relief rally yesterday.

The 50-issue NSE ended at 7,733.45, down 2.05 points or 0.03 percent after cracking below the 7,700-mark to hit a low of 7,678.35 earlier.

Broader markets ended mixed as the BSE mid-cap index jumped 0.37 percent while the small-cap shed 0.20 percent.

In stock specific action, ITC Ltd slipped 0.11 percent to Rs 317.20 after the company said its cigarette factories have been shut since May 4 and will remain so till the time it is able to comply with "interim requirement" of 85 percent pictorial warnings.

Shares of MCX dropped 3.25 per cent to Rs 886.60 after it reported a 45 percent fall in standalone net profit at Rs 27.10 crore for the fourth quarter.

Country's largest two-wheeler maker Hero MotoCorp fell 0.75 percent to Rs 2,872.30 despite the company's 70.85 percent rise in standalone net profit to Rs 814.16 crore.

Meanwhile, FPIs sold shares worth a net Rs 388.51 crore yesterday, as per provisional data released by the exchanges.

Overseas, the Shanghai Composite index ended lower by 2.82 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 1.66 percent, Singapore dropped 1.34 percent, Taiwan shed 0.26 per cent and Japan tumbled by 0.25 percent.

European markets were also lower as key indices in France, Germany and the UK fell between 0.38 percent and 0.71 percent.

Among 30-Sensex constituents, 17 ended lower while 13 finished in the positive zone.

Major losers were, Dr Reddy's (2.14 percent), Wipro (1.92 percent), Adani Ports (1.86 percent), ONGC (1.21 percent), HDFC Bank (1.14 percent), L&T (1.05 percent), Lupin (0.97 percent), Infosys (0.92 percent), Sun Pharma (0.84 percent), Cipla (0.82 percent) and Tata Steel (0.77 percent).

However, GAIL rose by 4.99 per cent followed by BHEL (3.17 percent), Asian Paints (2.31 percent), SBI (2.19 percent), Tata Motors (1.92 percent), ICICI Bank (1.54 percent) and Bharti Airtel (0.96 percent).

Among BSE sectoral and industry indices, healthcare fell by 0.86 percent followed by IT (0.75 percent), capital goods (0.55 percent), energy (0.17 percent) and metal (0.11 percent).

The market breadth remained negative as 1,395 shares ended lower, 1,121 closed higher, while 189 ruled steady.

The total turnover dropped to Rs 1,990.71 crore from Rs 2,336.37 crore yesterday.