Sensex ends 152 points lower, Nifty below 9,600

There were more than three losers against every gainer on BSE

The benchmark indices settled lower on Fridy as investors booked profits in financials such as State Bank of India and auto makers such as Maruti Suzuki India. Negative trend in European and Asian markets also impacted the sentiment.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended at 31,138, down 152 points, while the broader Nifty50 settled at 9,574, down 55 points.

In the broader market, the S&P BSE Midcap and the S&P BSE Smallcap indices shed over 1% each.

Market breadth depicted weakness. There were more than three losers against every gainer on BSE. 1,936 shares fell and 683 shares rose. A total of 137 shares were unchanged.

"Risk appetite was low ahead of long weekend, and with markets pricing in some dip in activity ahead of GST rollout. Banks were also reluctant with RBI’s warning to PSU banks over NPA resolution process.

Crude prices recovered from its 10-month lows, but did little to clear the concerns of low demand and global markets remained subdued,” said Anand James, Chief Market Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

For the week, both the indices logged small weekly gains on hopes the Reserve Bank of India will cut interest rates after minutes from a monetary policy committee meeting earlier this month showed one member acknowledging that inflation had eased.

Caution is however likely to prevail in the near term as the country gears up to unveil a nationwide Goods and Services Tax (GST) on July 1, while monitoring global factors such as falling crude prices.

Markets will be closed on Monday for a public holiday.

Sectors and stocks

The Nifty PSU Bank was the leading sectoral loser and dropped 2%, led by losses in Andhra Bank (down 4%), Union Bank (down 3%) and Canara Bank (down 3%). State Bank of India fell nearly 2% after gaining in the last five sessions.

The Nifty Auto index fell 1.7%. Maruti Suzuki was down 1.2% after gaining in the last two sessions, while Bajaj Auto shed 1%.

Tata Motors and Tata Steel were also down up to 2% after in a huge block deal Tata Steel sold 83.6 million equity shares of Tata Motors to Tata Sons.

Electrosteel Steels slipped as much as 7.9% while Bhushan Steel fell as much as 10% after a forum of lenders, led by SBI sent both the companies, along with Essar Steel to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for further action under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

Fortis Healthcare slumped as much as 15% to Rs 168.25, its lowest in more than six months, after Malaysia's Integrated Healthcare Holdings said it was not engaged in any negotiations in India currently.

Global markets

European markets were under pressure as investors monitored the movement of oil prices and focused on developments from the EU Summit in Brussels.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 and France's CAC 40 was down 0.1% each, while Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE slipped 0.2% each.

Among Asian markets, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was nearly unchanged.

China's Shanghai Composite and Japan's Nikkei added 0.3% and 0.1%, respectively. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index ended flat, while Taiwan's TSEC lost 0.2%.

Photograph: Danish Siddiqui/Reuters