By IANS,
Mumbai : A benchmark index for Indian equities Friday was in the red in afternoon trade. Most other Asian markets too were trading in the negative.
Weighing the indices down were banking, IT and telecom stocks.
Earlier, the index had moved up into the green briefly from it’s opening lows.
The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 18,444.24 points, was at 18,384.19 points, 70.75 points or 0.38 percent down from its previous close at 18,454.94 points.
At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty was ruling 0.29 percent lower at 5,524.4 points.
Broader markets indices were also subdued, with the BSE midcap index 0.19 percent down and the BSE smallcap index trading 0.23 percent higher.
The market breadth was tilted towards the negative with 1,395 scrips advancing, compared to 1,402 stocks declining and 108 remaining unchanged.
Other major Asian bourses were in the red, taking cues from Wall Street’s decline Thursday and ahead of the release of US job data Friday, which analysts said could come in poorer than expected.
The Japanese Nikkei closed 1.96 percent lower at 9,179.38 points while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 0.71 percent at 20,922.46 points.
The Chinese Shanghai Composite index was trading 1.28 percent down at 2,653.58 points.