BENGALURU: Indian shares settled marginally lower on Friday as investors booked profits at the end of a week that saw the blue-chip indexes hit record highs every day.
The benchmark Nifty 50 ended 0.07% lower at 26,197.75 points, while the BSE Sensex dropped 0.3% to 85,571.85. The indexes rose 1.5% and 1.2%, respectively, in their third straight week of gains.
An outsized US rate cut last Wednesday has bolstered foreign flows into emerging markets and lifted Indian benchmarks to record highs for seven consecutive sessions.Heavyweight financial stocks, which have risen more than 2% since the US rate cut, dropped nearly 1% on Friday. Top lender HDFC Bank and its private sector peer ICICI Bank both fell 1.7%.
“Investors are booking profits in stocks that saw gains in the record run and are buying stocks that remained muted, with no immediate triggers visible in the short-term,” Narendra Solanki, head of fundamental research at Anand Rathi, said.
IT companies, which earn a big chunk of their revenue from US clients, rose 0.4% after US-listed peer Accenture posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings due to strong demand for its AI services.
Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro and HCLTech were up between 0.3% and 1.4%.
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