Mumbai: Equity markets witnessed profit booking on Friday amid expectations of slower GDP numbers for the September quarter (Q2 FY20) and weak global cues.
Investors also tracked trends after the passage of the Hong Kong pro-democracy bill in Washington that could derail trade talks between the United States and China.
At the closing bell, the BSE S&P Sensex was down by 336 points or 0.82 percent to 40,704. The Nifty 50 tumbled down by 95 points or 0.78 percent at 12,056.
All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red except for Nifty realty which was up by 0.98 percent. But Nifty media was down by 2.4 percent, PSU bank by 1.7 percent metal by 1.2 percent, auto by 1.1 percent and FMCG by 0.9 percent.
Among stocks, Zee Entertainment was the top loser with a dip of 7.8 percent at Rs 286.50 per share. Metal majors Hindalco and Vedanta lost by 2.1 percent each while Tata Motors dived by 2.3 percent.
The other prominent losers were Mahindra & Mahindra, Hindustan Lever, Dr. Reddy’s, Yes Bank and State Bank of India.
However, Bharti Infratel continued to climb up and added gains of 6.7 percent at Rs 273.80 per share while Bharti Airtel was up by 1.1 percent. Adani Ports, utility major NTPC and HDFC Bank were also in the green.
Meanwhile, Asian markets slipped as investors turned cautious, fearing a new US law backing Hong Kong protesters could put hurdles in efforts to end the US-China trade conflict.
Hong Kong led the losses, dropping by 2 percent while South Korean shares lost by 1.4 percent and Japan’s Nikkei eased by 0.5 percent.