Indian shares posted their biggest weekly fall in seven weeks on Friday, as slower-than-expected domestic industrial output growth and a bleak outlook for financials further dented investor confidence already hurt by the eurozone's troubles.
Sluggish quarterly profit at Tata Steel, the world's No 7 steelmaker, and DLF, India's largest listed real estate developer, also added to the fall in the benchmark index, which ended at its lowest close in three weeks. Tata Steel fell 4 percent, while DLF shed 2.5 percent.
"We are still looking to overseas markets and not reacting to news within the country...Once we start looking at factors within India, we will lose even more ground," said Arun Kejriwal, strategist at research firm KRIS. "If Europe falls today, it will have a heavy impact on Monday." The main 30-share BSE index closed down 0.97 points at 17,192.82 points, with almost two thirds of its components in the red.
The index, which fell as much as 1.5 percent earlier, lost 2.1 percent this week - its biggest fall since the week ended September 23. Industrial output grew at its slowest pace in two years in September, providing further evidence of deceleration in the economy and raising the odds of a pause in the central bank's 20-month-long policy tightening cycle.
ICICI Bank, India's top private sector lender dropped 4.8 percent, and dragged the main index the most. Bigger rival State Bank of India fell 3.4 percent, while HDFC Bank lost 2.8 percent. Worries about rising bad loans in Asia's third-largest economy prompted Moody's Investors Service earlier this week to cut its outlook on the Indian banking sector to "negative" from "stable," saying monetary tightening and a slowdown in the economy would cut bank loan growth.
Shares in Kingfisher Airlines shares slumped 18 percent to a life low as the airline continued to cancel flights and newspapers reported leasing companies were planning to take planes back and pilots were leaving. The stock closed down 9.5 percent at 19.65 rupees.
Shares of Hindalco fell 4.3 percent after it warned second half of this fiscal year would be tough due to global economic uncertainty and cost pressures. The broader 50-share NSE index closed 1 percent down at 5,168.85 points. There were just 0.37 gainers for every decliner in the broader market, where almost 606 million shares changed hands.