The Sensex and Nifty ended lower and posted a small weekly loss as investors braced themselves for the start of the quarterly earnings season, with global equity markets cautiously lower ahead of US jobs data.
The Sensex was down 74.59 points or 0.27 per cent at 27,126.90 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was down 14.7 points or 0.18 per cent at 8,323.20.
Among BSE sectoral indices, capital goods index fell the most by 0.99 per cent, oil & gas 0.98 per cent, infrastructure 0.77 per cent and PSU 0.69 per cent. On the other hand, auto index was up 0.63 per cent, healthcare 0.43 per cent, IT per cent and power 0.02 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were Asian Paints (+2.39%), Tata Motors (+2.19%), Hero MotoCorp (+2.15%), Cipla (+1.27%) and Dr Reddy's (+0.86%), while the major losers were GAIL (-2.37%), Bharti Airtel (-2.28%), Adani Ports (-1.59%), Lupin (-1.43%) and ONGC (-1.35%).
Telecom stocks nosedive on DoT demand notice woes.
Zee Learn, which runs the Kidzee chain of pre-schools, ended higher by 8.4 per cent after its profit before tax for the June quarter more than doubled to Rs 8.01 crore.
US payrolls report
With the European economy threatened by Britain's decision to leave the EU, investors are counting on the resilience of the U.S. economy to support global growth as they await closely-followed U.S. payrolls report later on Friday.
Markets back home were a bit groggy after having rallied about 19 per cent since hitting a near two-year low on February 29 amid forecasts for above-normal monsoon rains after successive droughts and a recovery in company earnings in the March quarter.
Quarterly earnings
Investors were also girding themselves for quarterly earnings, starting with software maker Infosys on July 15.
“Global events will keep investors restless but domestically, things have improved. So if I have to trade on Nifty, I would lighten my position ahead of the earnings but for broader markets, domestic-focussed stocks will remain of interest,” said Amar Ambani, head of research at IIFL.
Investors are now awaiting the approval of the goods and services tax (GST) Bill in the upcoming session of Parliament that starts on July 18 and policy measures by the new central bank chief to prop up stocks.
Samir Lodha, MD, QuantArt Markets, says: "Market is stable and will be looking forward to US non-farm payrolls data to be released today. Last reading of non-farm payroll in US was extremely low at 35K and this time, the expectation is for 180K. A number lower than this will signify US economy and labour market is not that great and further subdue interest rate outlook. However, a number above 180K will signify that last month was an exception.
"Now based on Fed fund probabilities, chances of rate hike by December is 18% and chances of a rate hike in next one year till June 2017 is only 26%. Is it possible to further subdue the same ? Possible that hike probabilities will go up in the coming weeks and put pressure on INR.''
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European shares steadied in early trading on Friday as a rise in mining stocks on the back of firmer metals prices underpinned the market, although some major stock indexes remained set for their worst week in about five months.
Asian stocks deepened losses and the Japanese yen strengthened against the greenback on Friday as investors dumped riskier assets and fled to safe havens after four police officers were killed and others wounded in the United States.
Wall Street stocks dipped on Thursday as a drop in oil prices dragged down energy shares, while utilities reversed recent gains.