By Bharath Rajeswaran
(Reuters) -India’s equity benchmarks edged lower on Friday as heavyweight financials retreated, giving up some of the gains notched earlier in the week after the central bank’s dovish pause and fresh lending reforms.
The Nifty 50 was down 0.19% at 24,786.7, while the BSE Sensex shed 0.14% to 80,865, as of 9:49 a.m. IST.
Nine of the 16 major sectors logged losses at the open. Financials lost 0.4%, dragging the benchmark indexes.
They had gained 1.4% on Wednesday after the Reserve Bank of India eased rules for lending to capital markets and large companies.
Consumer and auto stocks fell 0.3% and 0.5%, respectively.
The broader small-caps and mid-caps gained 0.4% and 0.2%, respectively.
“The positive impact of RBI’s initiatives to boost credit growth in the economy is unlikely to sustain in the context of the sustained foreign selling in the market,” said VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Investments.
“Foreign portfolio investors are likely to further accelerate selling since the market construct provides them an opportunity after the rally in the previous session.”
FPIs pulled $2.7 billion from Indian stocks in September, taking their year-to-date outflows to $17.6 billion, on course for record annnual foreign withdrawals.
Among individual stocks, PC Jeweller rose 4% after reporting a 63% rise in standalone revenue and 23% reduction in bank debt in the second quarter, in its business update.
Axis Bank bucked the broader pullback in financials, rising 2%, after Morgan Stanley reiterated “overweight” rating and hiked price target to 1450 rupees from 1325 rupees, implying an upside of 25%.
“We expect trends in net interest margins, growth and credit costs to turn positive over the next 12 months,” said analysts led by Sumeet Kariwala of Morgan Stanley.
Meanwhile, WeWork India Management’s 30-billion-rupee IPO opened for subscription. The Indian unit of the U.S.-based shared office space provider is targeting a valuation of 86.85 billion rupees, according to Reuters calculations.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema and Janane Venkatraman)
