It was a fresh 13-month low for benchmark indices in India as investors feared that the US Federal Reserve would hike interest rates, if the US non farm payroll data due later today would be strong.

Selling was seen across the board as investors turned risk averse particularly in banking related stocks. The Sensex ended the day lower by 562 points at 25,201 points, while the Nifty ended lower by 167 points at a fresh 13 month low.

Indices

Several public sector banks saw deep cuts with Syndicate Bank, Bank of India, Union Bank of India and Bank of Baroda seeing cuts anywhere between 4-6 per cent.

IT Stocks which have remained resilient over the last one week also lost ground as the selling pressure continued unabated. Among the losers from the space were Wipro, TCS and Infosys.

Metal stocks which saw a smart rally on Thursday were once again the biggest laggards in trade. Vedanta, NMDC and Tata Steel saw deep cuts.

Bharti Airtel, Coal India and Lupin were the only stocks that managed to end the day flat or with marginal gains.

Cipla saw a marginal decline in trade despite reports that the company has acquired some US-based companies.

Meanwhile, markets across Asia ended the red, while Europe was trading with deep cuts. The German DAX, French CAC and the UK's FTSE were all trading with losses of close to 2 per cent.

GoodReturns.in