New Delhi The Indian stock market declined on Friday, led by heavy selling in finance and banking stocks.
The S&P BSE Banking index was down 2.22 per cent and the Finance index fell by 1.95 per cent.
Although, it was largely a subdued trade across most sectors, shares of Reliance Industries (RIL) recorded another fresh high during the session, touching an all-time high of Rs 1,884.40 on the BSE.
RIL's market capitalisation surged near the Rs 12 lakh crore mark. At the end of the day's trade, its market cap was over Rs 11.90 lakh crore. Its shares ended at Rs 1878.50, higher by Rs 53.90 or 2.95 per cent.
Rahul Sharma, Market Strategist & Research Head, Equity99 Advisors, said: 'Most traders are waiting for a break-out on the benchmark indices for the next move even as the undertone of the market remains bullish.'
He added that in the coming week, April-June 2020 earnings and global clues will set the market trend.
'We believe that the on-going earnings season will be one of the weakest ones in many years and investors should remain cautious as fundamentals are not in line with stock prices,' Sharma said.
Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, said that global cues were weak as record new coronavirus cases and deaths in several US states stoked concerns that new lockdowns could derail the economic recovery.
'The market seems to be oscillating between greed and fear. On one side, there is hope of gradual economic recovery along with positive management commentary while on the other side, there is fear of rising Covid cases leading to lockdown again,' he said.
Both foreign portfolio investors (FPI) and domestic institutional investors (DII) were net sellers on Friday. FPIs sold stocks with net value of Rs 1,031 crore while DIIs sold net stocks worth Rs 431.21 crore.
The BSE Sensex closed at 36,594.33, lower by 143.36 points or 0.39 per cent from the previous close of 36,737.69 points.
It had opened at 36,555.13 and recorded an intra-day high of 36,748.89 and a low of 36,401.11 points.
The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange closed at 10,768.05, lower by 45.40 points or 0.42 per cent from its previous close.
( With inputs from IANS )