Indian shares ended around 2 percent lower on Friday, dragged by financials and IT heavyweights such as Infosys Ltd and ICICI Bank Ltd, with the sentiment dampened by weak global cues. Domestic shares tracked broader Asian markets as the possibility of a US government shutdown and further rate hikes by the Federal Reserve next year made investors jittery.
The benchmark BSE index closed down 1.89 percent at 35,742.07 and fell 0.6 percent this week. The broader NSE index ended 1.81 percent lower at 10,754, shedding 0.48 percent in the week. Shares of software services exporters Infosys Ltd and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd closed 3.13 percent and 2.98 percent lower, respectively while ICICI Bank ended 2.2 percent lower.
Markets took a dip on Thursday after the US Federal Reserve largely retained plans to increase interest rates despite risks to growth while the sentiment also soured after US President Donald Trump refused to sign legislation to fund the government unless he got money for a border wall, risking a partial federal shutdown on Saturday MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 1.07 percent.
Consolidation continued across domestic markets after a seven day rally ended on Thursday. The broader NSE index gained 4.6 percent between Dec. 11 and Dec. 19. "Generally, we do see some profit booking towards the end of the year and this time, especially the last couple of days, we have seen Indian markets react to global news," said Anand James, chief market strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
"This could add to some volatility but overall we expect Nifty to be rangebound between 10,700 and 11,200 in the short term." Financials and IT stocks were among the top drags with Infosys Ltd's counter trading 2.3 percent lower. The software services exporter appointed Bharti Airtel Ltd's Nilanjan Roy as its chief financial officer after market hours on Thursday.
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