Global cues, fiscal deficit concerns drag equities lower

Mumbai, Dec 1 (IANS) Growing concerns over the country's widening fiscal deficit, coupled with negative global cues and profit booking in auto, metal and oil and gas stocks, dragged the key Indian equity indices lower on Friday.

According to market observers, the indices were dragged lower from their highs achieved during early morning trade due to the boost given by GDP data for the July-September quarter.

On a closing basis, the wider Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) declined by 104.75 points or 1.02 per cent to 10,121.80 points.

The barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE closed at 32,832.94 points -- down 316.41 points or 0.95 per cent -- from Thursday's close.

The BSE market breadth was bearish -- 1,696 declines and 1,010 advances.

The S&P BSE mid-cap index closed lower by 0.55 per cent, whereas the small-cap index was higher at 0.10 per cent.

"Sensex tanked over 300 points and Nifty plunged about 100 points in the afternoon trade on Friday as economic growth data failed to convince sentiments in markets. Concerns grew over country's fiscal deficit and rising crude prices," Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls, told IANS.

Data released on Thursday showed that India's budgetary fiscal deficit for the first seven months of 2017-18 stood at 96.1 per cent -- Rs 5.25 lakh crore -- of the full year's target of Rs 5.46 lakh crore.

"Carrying on from the previous session, markets continued to display weakness as the Nifty ended sharply lower on Friday. The slide was led by PSU banks, pharma and telecom stocks," Deepak Jasani, Head, Retail Research, HDFC Securities, told IANS.

"The indices initially edged higher in early trade boosted by GDP data for the July-September quarter. But a bout of volatility was witnessed in mid-morning trade as key benchmark indices reversed intra-day gains to dive into negative territory," Jasani added.

Provisional data with the exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors purchased scrips worth Rs 306.11 crore, while domestic institutional investors bought stocks worth Rs 176.19 crore.

All the 19 sub-indices of the BSE ended in the red, led by S&P BSE auto index, which declined by 250.64 points.

It was followed by metal (down 242.86 points), oil and gas (down 234.76 points) and consumer durables (down 205.84 points) indices.

Major Sensex gainers on Friday were: Kotak Bank, up 0.23 per cent at Rs 1,002.55; NTPC, up 0.14 per cent at Rs 181.15; and Maruti Suzuki, up 0.06 per cent at Rs 8,607.55.

Major Sensex losers were: Adani Ports, down 3 per cent at Rs 386.90; Bajaj Auto, down 2.99 per cent at Rs 3,212.65; Bharti Airtel, down 2.74 per cent at Rs 483.25; Sun Pharma, down 2.59 per cent at Rs 525.95; and SBI, down 2.47 per cent at Rs 312.55.