Domestic equity indices continued to trade sideways with marginal losses as banking, oil and gas and metal stocks continued to face selling pressure in the afternoon trade. Lack of any visible trigger resulted in a tepid performance of equities.
While the 30-share index Sensex was trading 0.12 percent lower at 26,486.26 (1.27 pm), the 50-share index Nifty was at 8,141.05, down 0.16 percent on Friday trade. Among indices, shares of bank, FMCG, healthcare, metals and oil and gas were trading in the red, dragging the market in the afternoon trade. However, auto and IT stocks provided some support to the market indices.
Meantime, market breadth was negative with 1,074 advances and 1,297 declines. Hindalco was the major loser with its shares down 3.72 percent in the morning trade at Rs 169.55. Bharti Airtel, ONGC, Tata Power and UltraTech Cement were the other major losers on Friday trade.
Among gainers, Tata Motors was the major winner with its shares gaining 2.09 percent to trade at Rs 472.90. Zee Entertainment, HDFC, Bharti Infratel and Infosys also saw buying from investors.
In the global front, performance of Asian indices remained mixed as major Asian currencies saw depreciation after US Fed hiked interest rates. Post US Federal Reserve's hike of interest rate by 25 basis points, Chinese yuan touched its lowest point against dollar since May 2008. Weakness in Japanese yen also pushed Nikkei higher on Friday. US Federal Reserve hiked interest rate by 25 basis points to 0.75 percent from 0.5 percent earlier on Wednesday with an outlook of three rate hikes next year. US stocks rose on Thursday led by banking shares, supplementing the uptrend.
Meanwhile, Indian currency was trading 0.10 percent lower at 67.76 against dollar on Friday. Among commodities, oil companies in West Asian nations informed customers about supply cuts in the near future, which pushed West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude to touch $51.08 per barrel in US market.
