A slew of macroeconomic factors and profit-booking pulled down the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex by 284 points to end at 22,403.89 this week.
Flat manufacturing growth, drop in core sector industries data, lower monsoon forecast and tensions mounting over Ukraine affected the sentiment.
The HSBC survey for April showed manufacturing sector remained ‘steady’ even as domestic demand made up for fall in exports.
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Growth in eight core sector industries decelerated to 2.6 per cent in 2013—14, the lowest in almost a decade, said government data.
Investor worries over developments in Ukraine lingered on as the US has already announced some sanctions and has threatened to impose more economic sanctions on key sectors of Russia’s economy.
The Sensex resumed higher at 22,717.59 and moved in a range of 22,721.36 and 22,284.96 before ending the week at 22,403.89, disclosing a loss of 284.18 points, or 1.25 per cent.
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The NSE 50-share Nifty also dropped by 87.95 points, or 1.30 per cent, to end at 6,694.80.
Shares of metal, capital goods, realty, power and auto sectors were the major losers during the week.
However, FIIs continued their buying spree by investing net Rs 1,869.45 crore, as per the data issued by SEBI, including the provisional figure of May 2.
Jignesh Chaudhary, Head of Research, Veracity Broking Services said, “The equity markets observed some correction in the week. The markets will also eye the earnings of some major bluechips.
“So this means that we might see some correction in the coming trading sessions. There was huge profit-booking observed in the entire trading week as investors took advantage of some outperformed stocks. The technical indicators are suggesting that the markets would be bullish in the coming week. Sensex is expected to trade in the range of 21,870 to 22,550 and CNX Nifty in the range of 6,520 to 6,750,” he added.
Major losers from the Sensex pack were Tata Steel (8.33 per cent), Hindalco Ind. (7.81 per cent), SSLT (6.57 per cent), Larsen (6.49 per cent), BHEL (5.45 per cent), Bajaj Auto (4.62 per cent), Bharti Airtel (4.50 per cent), Maruti Suzuki (3.61 per cent), NTPC (3.58 per cent), HUL (3.16 per cent), Gail India (2.45 per cent), Tata Motors (2.15 per cent), RIL (2.02 per cent), SBI (1.79 per cent), Coal India (1.52 per cent), HDFC Bank (1.29 per cent), M&M (1.28 per cent), ICICI Bank (1.38 per cent) and ITC (1.00 per cent).
However, Dr. Reddy’s Lab rose by 4.25 per cent, ONGC (2.41 per cent), Cipla (1.84 per cent), HDFC (1.76 per cent), Wipro (1.51 per cent), Infosys (1.43 per cent) and Sun Pharma (1.15 per cent).
Among the S&P BSE sectoral indices, Metal dropped by 5.68 per cent, followed by CG at 5.46 per cent, Realty (4.89 per cent), Power (3.44 per cent), Auto (2.30 per cent), Bankex (1.47 per cent) and FMCG (1.18 per cent).
However, Healthcare rose by 2.24 per cent.
Small-cap and Midcap indices also moved down by 0.85—0.22 per cent due to selling from retail investors.
The total market turnover at the BSE and NSE was Rs. 11,063.01 crore and Rs. 55,832.91 crore, respectively as against the last weekend’s level of Rs. 10,797.16 crore and Rs. 59,392.71 crore.