Mumbai: The equity markets turned jittery slumping over 1 per cent on Friday as cautious investors booked profits in frontline stocks ahead of the inaugural speech of Donald Trump who will step in as the 45th President of the United States.
Additionally, a lower than expected quarterly performance from the private sector lender Axis Bank raised concerns about non-performing assets in the system, which triggered a sell-off in bank stocks.
The Nifty slipped below its psychological support level of 8,400 level mark and ended the day at 8,349.35, down 85.75 points or 1.02 per cent. The Sensex dropped 274.10 points or 1 per cent to close the session at 27,034.50.
The shares of Axis Bank slumped 6.86 per cent after reporting a 73 per cent fall in net profits for the quarter ended December 2016. This triggered profit booking in the shares of other leading private and public sector lenders.
While the shares of SBI dropped 2.83 per cent, ICICI Bank fell 2.34 per cent on the BSE. “Foreign portfolio investors have just started to report positive numbers but it would be too early to say whether the outflow trend has reversed. In the US, Mr Trump is expected to take radical steps. The concrete details would be available only after his resumption in the office.
“There are many imponderables in the short term for the markets to assimilate and hence the market will enter into wait and watch mode and complete the ongoing correction in the intervening period,” said Jimeet Modi, CEO, Samco Securities.
“Finally, after six-days of consolidation, the Nifty managed to move out of the small range. On Friday, the gap down opening was followed by a strong selling pressure in the second half, which led to Nifty slipping below its support zone of 8397 – 8370,” said Sameet Chavan, a analyst at Angel Broking.
