Mumbai: Heightening global tensions washed out early gains as both the key indices- Sensex and Nifty- ended lower for the second consecutive week due to selling after mid-week on the back of RBI leaving interest rates unchanged for the third straight time in policy review.
Worsening geopolitical worries after US President Barack Obama authorised targeted air strikes in Northern Iraq weighed on the global markets, ultimately affecting the local bourses.
Russian President Vladimir Putin went on retaliatory measures by banning food imports from western countries despite sanctions imposed by the US and European countries, which also affected the market sentiment.
Unrest in Libya and resumption of conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants, too, weighed on the market.
The sentiment was also hit by the rupee slumping to five- month low of 61.74 (intra-day) against the US dollar with global crude prices shooting up due to global instability.
Investors also turned cautious after the Reserve Bank (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan warned that global markets are at the risk of a crash due to the lingering competitive loose monetary policies being followed by the developed economies.
The BSE S&P Sensex resumed higher at 25,631.68 and firmed up further to 25,928.32 on initial buying as investors cheered RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan's move to give more funds to banks for lending by slashing statutory liquidity ratio (SLE) by 50 basis points even as he left policy rates unchanged for the third straight time.
However, it fell sharply to 25,232.82 before ending the week to more-than three-week low at 25,329.14, showing a loss of 151.70 points or 0.60 percent.
It has dropped 797.61 points of 3.05 points during the two weeks.
The NSE 50-share Nifty also moved down by 34.05 points or 0.45 percent to finish at 7,568.55. It has dropped by 222.10 points of 2.85 percent during the two weeks.
Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 2,217.01 crore during the week as per SEBI's record, including the provisional figure of August 8.
Jignesh Chaudhary, Head of Research, Veracity Broking Services said, "Equity markets had a firm start in the week but when the RBI Policy was announced it managed to close in green on Tuesday. Then it started falling back with the global concern of Ukraine, Iran and the virus threat. FII were observed in the selling position on last day of the week. Profit booking was also observed in the markets."
"In the next trading week there would be one day short, but there are some major economic data release which are scheduled for Indian economy - The IIP data and inflation Data is scheduled in the next week so the markets would be reacting on the data release and for US economy Core sales data is also scheduled and that is expected to be unchanged in comparison with the previous data release," he added.
"The technical indicators are expecting some corrections in the Indian market so the BSE Sensex is expected to trade in the range of 24,900 to 25,250 and Nifty is expected to trade in the range of 7,495 to 7,550," he further commented.
Twenty-one scrips out of the 30-share sensex finished lower while others ended higher. Major losers were SSLT (5.04 percent), Axis Bank (4.19 percent), Tata Power (3.69 percent), Gail India (3.57 percent), ICICI Bank (2.64 percent), HDFC Bank (2.32 percent), Tata Steel (2.12 percent), Cipla (1.95 percent), L&T (1.98 percent), TCS (1.61 percent), Bharti Air (1.54 percent), Tata Motor (1.48 percent), HDFC (1.27 percent), Coal India (1.27 percent), Sun Pharma (1.25 percent) and BHEL (1.18 percent).
However, M&M rose 4.90 percent followed Infosys 4.19 percent, Bajaj Auto 3.09 percent, Wipro 2.23 percent, ONGC 2.05 percent, HUL 1.17 percent and Maruti Suzuki 1.22 percent.
Among the S&P BSE sectoral indices, Metal fell by 2.49 percent, Bankex 2.45 percent, Realty 1.85 percent, Power 1.61 percent, CG 1.49 percent and PSU 1.16 percent while CD rose by 2.88 percent, IT 1.42 percent and Auto 1.40 percent.
The total turnover at BSE and NSE rose to Rs 13,623.67 crore and Rs 74,367.90 crs respectively from the last weekend's level of Rs 11,998.28 core and Rs 73,179.24 crs.
