Indian market trends are likely to be determined by overseas markets and foreign fund flows, dealers said. For the week to March 6, the benchmark 30-share Sensex index fell 5.85 percent or 517.39 points to 8,325.82, a near three-year-low.
Foreign funds have sold equities worth 2.26 billion dollars so far this year after selling shares worth 3.14 billion dollars in the same period last year. For the year 2008, overseas funds sold Indian stocks worth 13.13 billion dollars.
The markets are likely to remain range-bound or edge downward, dealers said, having been subdued after Indias central bank cut key short-term interest rates by 50 basis points on Thursday to spur growth in a weakening economy.
Indias economy grew at its slowest pace in nearly six years in the third quarter as the Asian giant began to feel the full brunt of the deepening global downturn, official data showed on Friday. The worse-than-expected 5.3 percent expansion in the three months to December was down from 8.9 percent a year earlier.
Inflation fell to a near six-year-low of 3.03 percent from 3.36 percent the previous week, official data showed Thursday, according to the Wholesale Price Index, Indias closest watched cost-of-living measure. "The bank rate-cut seemed to be a non-event. A buying trigger could emerge from the global markets," said Advait Date, dealer with brokerage BHH Securities.
Investors will watch the US jobs data expected later in the day. Economists predict job losses in the United States will accelerate from the previous month.