By Bharath Rajeswaran and Vivek Kumar M
(Reuters) -India’s equity benchmarks closed marginally lower on Friday due to profit booking after U.S. jobs data dampened hopes of an imminent rate cut, but still logged weekly gains on improving earnings outlook.
The Nifty 50 fell 0.47% to 26,068.15, while the BSE Sensex lost 0.47% to 85,231.92 on the day, having approached record high levels in the previous session.
The Nifty and Sensex rose about 0.6% and 0.8% each this week, settling less than 0.9% below their September 2024 all-time highs.
Seven of the 16 major sectors logged weekly gains, with IT index adding 1.6%, led by a 2.8% rise in Infosys on a 180-billion-rupee share buyback, which began on Thursday.
Auto index gained 1.1% this week, helped by Eicher Motors’ and Hero MotoCorp’s 6.6% and 8.4% jump on upbeat quarterly results.
“Despite the profit booking near record high levels, markets have support from firm earnings and cooling FPI selling, and India-U.S. trade deal could trigger a breakout rally,” said Kranthi Bathini, director of equity strategy at Wealthmills Securities.
“India’s distance from the overheated global AI trade also makes it a valuation hedge and gives it a shot at outperforming Asian and emerging peers in the near term,” Bathini said.
The broader small-caps fell 2.2%. Mid-caps lost 0.8% this week on profit booking after hitting all-time high levels on Tuesday.
Among individual stocks, Max Healthcare gained 7.1% this week on strong earnings and improving volumes from capacity expansion.
Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles fell 7.4% this week after it cut its fiscal 2026 margin target for Jaguar Land Rover following a production hit from a cyberattack.
On the day, metal index fell 2.3% on a firmer dollar and concerns over domestic steel prices. [MKTS/GLOB]
Hindalco Industries lost 2.8% after a fire broke out at unit Novelis’ plant in New York.
Other Asian markets slipped 2.8% after strong U.S. jobs data for September dimmed expectations of a December Fed rate cut.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran and Vivek Kumar M in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich, Sonia Cheema and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
