BENGALURU: Indian shares were muted on Friday and logged weekly losses, weighed down by financials and consumer stocks, as investors digested the fading likelihood of early rate cuts in India and the United States.
The NSE Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex dropped 0.33% and 0.68%, respectively for the week.
“When valuations are high, the bears will use any negative news to drag the market down,” said VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services, referring to “slightly hawkish comments” from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)governor on Thursday.
The RBI kept interest rates unchanged on Thursday, as expected, and signaled rate cuts may not be imminent.
On the day, the Nifty and Sensex struggled for direction, before closing marginally higher, led by a rebound in the final two hours in financials after Thursday’s slide.
The Nifty 50 settled 0.30% higher at 21,782.50, while Sensex rose 0.23% to 71,595.49.
Heavyweight financials shed 1.13% for the week. They have dropped roughly 6% since Jan. 16, when top private HDFC Bank posted disappointing quarterly results.
Consumer stocks dropped 2.27% for the week, led by a 5.7% fall in heavyweight ITC, which posted its worst week since October 2021.
ITC’s top shareholder, British American Tobacco, said it plans to monetise some of its stake.
Information technology stocks, however, added 1% for the week after resilient services and labour market data raised hopes of a soft landing for the US economy, a key source of revenue for the sector.
Oil & gas added about 4% for the week, helped by sustained post-results rally in key constituents like Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation.
The broader, more-domestically focused small-caps closed flat, while mid-caps added 0.85% for the week. Both indexes logged their worst session in more than two weeks on Friday.
Among individual stocks, Paytm tumbled through the week, down 45% since Jan. 31, when the RBI ordered its banking arm to stop business.
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