Sensex, Nifty snap four-week winning streak as IT, financials drag

Indian shares extended losses for the second straight session on Friday, snapping a four-week winning streak, dragged by financials and information technology (IT) stocks.

The Nifty 50 lost 0.5% this week, while Sensex shed 0.79%. Both the blue chips had risen nearly 6% each over the last four weeks, scaling fresh all-time highs.

On Friday, the Nifty 50 index settled 0.07% lower at 19,646.05, while the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.16% to 66,160.20.

While the benchmarks declined, the broader peers showed resilience with the small-caps and midcaps climbing 0.19% and 0.55%, respectively, on the day.

Five of the 13 major sectoral indexes logged losses, with high weightage financials losing 0.41% and IT falling 0.86%. Both IT and financials indexes lost over 1% each for the week.

Asian markets rose marginally after the Bank of Japan kept policy rates unchanged. European equities were mostly lower on rate worries after stronger-than-expected US GDP data in the June quarter dampened hopes of an end to the Federal Reserve’s policy tightening.

The resilience in the U.S. economy provides room for the Fed to raise rates further to tamp inflation down to its 2% target.

“Most investors could hold back their investments and also start booking some profits at current levels after the recent rise,” said Raghavendra Nath, managing director at Mumbai-based investment advisory firm Ladderup Wealth Management.

“We are in a consolidation phase. The key is to manage risk in this phase,” said Ajit Mishra, senior vice president for technical research at Religare Broking. “Investors should use intermediate dips to gradually add quality stocks.”

Among individual stocks, heavyweight Reliance Industries rose 1 per cent, capping some of the index losses. The stock had fallen 4.5 per cent over the last five sessions after demerging its financial services unit.