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The Sensex plunged over 270 points as investors remained cautious ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration as the US president later in the day.
The caution overshadowed better-than-expected China’s fourth quarter GDP growth and Fed chair Janet Yellen taking a less hawkish stance on rate hike. Discouraging earnings by some companies too weighed on sentiment.
The 30-share barometer ended lower by 274.10 points, or 1.00 per cent, to 27,034.50. The NSE Nifty closed lower by 85.75 points, or 1.02 per cent, to 8,349.35.
Barring FMCG, all other BSE sectoral indices ended in the red. Among them, metal index fell the most by 2.37 per cent, infrastructure 2.04 per cent, PSU and power 1.97 per cent each, while FMCG index was up 0.1 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were Bharti Airtel (+1.31%), Asian Paints (+0.6%), ITC (+0.59%), Bajaj Auto (+0.22%) and HDFC Bank (+0.15%), while the major losers were Axis Bank (-6.86%), Adani Ports (-3.59%), SBI (-2.83%), Tata Steel (-2.68%) and ICICI Bank (-2.34%).
Much of the losses in banking came from private lender Axis Bank , which plunged 6.86 per cent after it reported a sharp 73 per cent decline in net profit at Rs 580 crore for the December quarter yesterday.
ICICI Bank too faced selling pressure and lost 2.34 per cent to end at Rs 263.40, while state-run SBI fell 2.83 per cent.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan slipped 0.2 per cent, and looked set to end the week 0.1 per cent lower.
“From the viewpoint of probability, I feel the downside probability is more than upside because factors that pertain to the latter have already been discounted,” said Madhumita Ghosh, head of Corporate Solutions Victory Inc.
If India does not see proper growth in the coming times, then markets may fall further, she added.
Caution prevailed in financial markets on Friday ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, even as China’s fourth-quarter economic growth beat expectations and Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen took a less hawkish policy stance.
US stocks fell on Thursday, continuing to pull back from the post-election rally, on investor caution ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration as president on Friday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 72.32 points, or 0.37 per cent, to 19,732.4, the S&P 500 lost 8.2 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 2,263.69 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 15.57 points, or 0.28 per cent, to 5,540.08.
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