BENGALURU: Indian shares declined on Thursday, dragged by information technology stocks (IT) following disappointing results from Tech Mahindra and as financial stocks continued to retreat.
The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index fell 0.47% to 21,352.60 points and the S&P BSE Sensex lost 0.51% at 70,700.67. They have fallen about 1.3% each over the three sessions this holiday-truncated week, logging their worst performance since the week ending Oct. 27. The market is closed on Friday for a local holiday.
High-weightage financials led the losses for a second straight week, adding 1.6% to their 4.1% drop last week that was sparked by HDFC Bank reporting disappointing margins. In the six sessions since then, foreign funds have sold Indian shares worth 347.66 billion rupees ($4.18 billion), pulling the Nifty 50 down about 3%.
“The selling pressure in financials is because of worries that the best of profitability for banks is over,” said Aishvarya Dadheech, founder and chief investment officer of Fident Asset Management. “HDFC Bank’s results also brought margin concerns in the sector to the fore, which has hurt sentiment and spurred FII selling.” Media stocks tumbled 9.93% this week, the most since March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a global sell-off.
The main reason this time was the 30.55% plunge in Zee Entertainment, its biggest weekly fall ever, after its $10 billion merger with Sony’s local unit collapsed.
On the day, seven of the 13 major sectors logged losses, with the IT index sliding 1.60%. Tech Mahindra shed 6.1% and was the top Nifty 50 loser after it posted a smaller-than-expected quarterly profit due to weak client spending. On the flip side, the top gainer was Bajaj Auto, which rose 5.23% after the automaker beat profit expectations, helped by strong domestic demand.
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