Indian share prices fell 0.37 percent in choppy and rangebound trade on Friday in line with a weakening of Asian markets amid general concern about the outlook for the US economy, dealers said. They said index-linked banking, capital goods and telecoms fell, but buying was sustained in mid and small-cap stocks.
The benchmark 30-share Sensex fell 73.56 points to 20,030.83, off the day's high of 20,171.57. "The markets slipped on weak regional trends, but saw fresh buying support at just below the 20,000 points levels. We expect some gains to come in next week," said Manoj Kakaiya, a dealer with brokerage ULJK Securities.
Gainers led losers 2,082 to 830 on volume of 61.25 billion rupees (1.55 billion dollars). Overseas fund flows into Indian shares so far this year totalled 16.98 billion dollars, data showed Thursday. India's biggest telecom firm Bharti Airtel fell 35.25 rupees or 2.57 percent to 952.5 rupees on media reports suggesting that the company may have trouble obtaining all the additional spectrum it wants. India's private sector ICICI Bank fell 35.65 rupees or 2.87 percent to 1,206.85. Engineering multinational Larsen and Toubro fell 61 rupees or 1.44 percent to 4,174.1.