The Sensex ended Friday’s session at 59,655 points, a gain of 22 points or 0.04 per cent. The Nifty50 ended the day at 17,624 points, down 0.40 points. But during the week, the Sensex went down by 1.3 per cent and the Nifty50 by 1.1 per cent. This is the first weekly decline for both indices in April.
The revenue hit for IT firms was much steeper than expected and warranted a de-rating, said analysts. In tune with happenings in the IT sector, the Nifty IT index declined 5 per cent during the week. Kotak Institutional Equities, in a note, said that the banking crisis in US regional banks and European banks in March 2023 has induced greater caution and could affect the June 2023 quarter too.
In the preceding three weeks, the 30-share Sensex and the 50-share Nifty had gained on the back of robust buying by foreign portfolio investors (FPIs). However, in the last four sessions, they were net sellers to the tune of Rs 928 crore. On Friday, FPIs sold securities worth Rs 2,116 crores, according to provisional data received from the exchanges.
Concerns about the trajectory of rate hikes further kept the investors on tenterhooks during the week with some central bank officials in the developed world batting for monetary policy tightening to tame high inflation.
Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland president Loretta Mester on Thursday signalled her support for another hike while her Dallas counterpart Lorie Logan said inflation has been much too high.
“The sentiments in the domestic market were dampened due to a weak start to the earnings season by IT bellwethers and their cautious outlook. The most significant risk for the market today is a downgrade in corporate earnings forecasts,” said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services.
On Friday, the market breadth was weak with 1,985 stocks declining and 1,477 advancing. ITC rose about 2 per cent on the day and was, both, the best-performing Sensex stock and the biggest contributor to Sensex gains.