The Sensex and Nifty ended lower on Friday, after hitting record highs in each of the previous four sessions, as disappointing quarterly earnings weighed on bank and pharmaceutical shares.

The broader NSE index closed down 6.05 points or 0.06 per cent at 10,014.50, but was up 1 per cent for the week. The benchmark BSE index ended 73.42 points or 0.23 per cent lower at 32,309.88, but was still 0.88 per cent higher for the week.

“It is only general profit-booking, because the NSE (index) crossed the psychological level earlier in the week and (there has been) a run up in stocks within a short span of time,” said Saurabh Jain, assistant vice-president of research at SMC Global Securities.

“At this stage, the market needs a breather and some amount of price correction is natural.”

Among BSE sectoral indices, healthcare index plunged 1.73 per cent, metal 1.39 per cent, realty 0.67 per cent and capital goods 0.61 per cent. On the other hand, IT index was up 1.05 per cent, TECk 0.8 per cent, FMCG 0.23 per cent and auto 0.21 per cent.

Major Sensex losers were Dr Reddy's (-6.08%), Lupin (-4.34%), Sun Pharma (-3.89%), ICICI Bank (-3.6%) and Hero MotoCorp (-2.04%), while the top five gainers were HDFC (+3.2%), Infosys (+2.63%), ITC (+0.9%), Adani Ports (+0.9%) and ONGC (+0.76%).

Dr. Reddy's was the biggest drag on the NSE index. The drugmaker's quarterly profit more than halved as it was hit by regulatory hurdles and pricing pressures in the United States.

ICICI Bank Ltd plunged after the country's third biggest lender by assets posted an 8 percent drop in first-quarter profit.

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors bought shares worth a net Rs 1,869.92 crore yesterday, as per provisional data. Domestic institutional investors sold shares worth a net Rs 660.03 crore

Asian stock markets sagged on Friday after US tech shares retreated from recent rallies, though optimism about US corporate earnings and the global economy underpinned overall sentiment.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.8 per cent but was still on track for a 0.4 per cent weekly gain, with Samsung Electric , Asia's largest company by market capitalisation, dropping 3.5 per cent. Japan's Nikkei shed 0.4 per cent.

A swoon in technology and transportation shares led the S&P 500 slightly lower on Thursday on a day full of corporate earnings reports, but the Dow industrials set a record closing high, helped by a jump in Verizon.

The Dow Jones Transport Average, often looked at as a gauge of the economy's health, closed down 3.1 per cent, dragged lower after a worrisome outlook from package delivery company United Parcel Service.

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