BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian shares pared early losses on Friday, as investors gauged results from software services giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), while some bargain hunters bought into equities after the indexes were set to post weekly losses of around 0.2%.
By 0458 GMT, the blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index was down only 0.13% at 15,707.70, after falling as much as 0.61%. The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex pulled back from a decline of 0.65% and was down 0.17% at 52,478.58.
The broader Nifty 50 index is trading below its 21-day moving average, signalling an impending downward trend in the market.
“Indian markets have been trading in a tight range for the last couple of days. They opened lower today and that has attracted some bargain-hunting,” said Anand James, chief market strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
“Markets are trying to limit losses with some sporadic buying and we are seeing some stability return,” he added.
Major lenders HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank slid 0.9% and 0.8%, respectively, and were the top drags on the Nifty Bank index that fell 0.9%.
The Nifty Auto index extended losses, falling 0.54%. For the week so far, it shed 2.52%.
Among global markets, Asian shares hit a two-month low as the global spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19 left investors worried of a stalled worldwide economic recovery. [MKTS/GLOB]
Software services heavyweight Tata Consultancy Services shares fell as much as 1.5% after the company reported a 29% jump in June-quarter net profit on Thursday. Analysts, however, had expected a profit of 93.72 billion rupees, slightly above the company’s reported figure of 90.08 billion rupees.
Defence equipment maker Bharat Dynamics shares rose 4.4% after the firm won a 4.99 billion rupees ($66.79 million) contract for the supply of Akash missile to the Indian Air Force.
($1 = 74.7100 Indian rupees)
Reporting by Shivani Singh in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V
Source: Reuters