Thirty four out of 50 Nifty stocks closed in negative zone.Falling for a second straight day, domestic stocks markets reversed early gains on Friday amid weakness inauto and energy stocks.The SP BSE Sensex ended 96.66points lower, or 0.27 per cent, at 36,009.84 while, NSE's benchmark index Nifty finished at 10,794.95, down 26.65 points or 0.25 per cent from previous close.
Major laggards on 50-stock Nifty were IndusInd Bank, Tata Motors, Bharti Infratel, TCS and Yes Bank, closing between 3.45 and 1.87 per cent lower.
Thirty four out of 50 stocks closed in negative zone.
Losses were led by IndusInd Bank, Tata Motors and TCS on Sensex.Shares in Infosys closed 0.68 per cent higher on NSE.
The IT major is due to release its quarterly results later in day.The Nifty PSU Bank, comprising stocks of state-owned banks, closed 0.90 per cent lower.
TCS, country's largest software services exporter, fell over 2 per cent on both stock exchanges, a day after company reported a record net profit of Rs.
8,105 crore for October-December quarter."There is a sense of caution among investors, and there is a fairly bearish sentiment out there, but index is holding its own and not selling off," news agency Reuters quoted Sunil Sharma, chief investment officer with Sanctum Wealth Management, as saying."This suggests that market is willing to look past all bad news and that is typically suggestive of bull market action."Analysts say macroeconomic data besides key corporate earnings reports will be watched closely.
The government will release monthly data for factory activity, measured by Index of Industrial Production (IIP), in evening.