A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Friday pared its intra-day losses, though real estate stocks continued to see heavy selling over the bribery scam involving senior officials of financial institutions and some real estate developers.The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 19,391.96 points, was ruling at 19,304.14 points, down 7.85 points or 0.04 percent from its previous close at 19,318.16 points.
It had fallen to 18,954.82 points.
At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the 50-share S&P CNX Nifty was trading at 5,803.75 points, up 0.07 percent.
Broader markets indices suffered more losses, with the BSE midcap index ruling 2.56 percent down and the BSE smallcap index trading 3.79 percent lower.
The CBI Wednesday arrested senior officials from LIC Housing Finance, LIC, Bank of India, Central Bank of India and Punjab National Bank for allegedly accepting bribes to extend loans to realty companies.
As a result, realty stocks continued to be hammered and were among the biggest losers.
The market breadth was negative, with only 385 stocks advancing, compared to 2,529 scrips on the decline, while 58 stocks were unchanged.
Other Asian markets were trading lower after North Korea warned South Korea that any “escalated confrontation” will lead to war.
Also, People’s Bank of China’s nudge to commercial banks to curtail lending for rest of the year, added to fears that Beijing may take more steps to curb inflation.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was trading 0.77 percent lower at 22,876.23 points, while the Shanghai Composite index was ruling 0.92 percent down at 2,871.7 points.
The Japanese Nikkei closed 0.4 percent lower at 10,039.56 points.
