Indian shares dip; benchmarks hit month-low as earnings, outflows weigh

Reuters

2 days ago

July 25 (Reuters) - India's equity benchmarks ended at a one-month low on Friday, marking their longest weekly losing streak so far in 2025 as a broad sell-off driven by weak earnings, foreign outflows and global trade uncertainty dented investor sentiment.
The Nifty 50 (.NSEI), opens new tab and the BSE Sensex (.BSESN), opens new tab fell 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively, for the week dragged by a 0.9% drop on Friday to close at 24,837 points and 81,463.09 points, respectively. This was their fourth consecutive weekly decline.
Eleven of the 16 major sectors declined for the week, with information technology (.NIFTYIT), opens new tab, oil and gas (.NIFOILGAS), opens new tab and consumer goods (.NIFTYFMCG), opens new tab topping sectoral losses.
The IT index slid 4.1%, dragged by lacklustre earnings. Infosys (INFY.NS), opens new tab fell 4.4% amid concerns over weak client spending and tepid Q1 commentary.
The broader small-cap (.NIFSMCP100), opens new tab and mid-cap (.NIFMDCP100), opens new tab indexes logged weekly losses of 3.5% and 1.9%, respectively.
The FMCG index <.NIFTYFMCG> lost 3.4%, also pressured by disappointing results from Nestle India (NEST.NS), opens new tab and Colgate Palmolive India (COLG.NS), opens new tab.
Oil and gas (.NIFOILGAS), opens new tab lost 3.5%, dragged by 5.7% drop in heavyweight Reliance Industries on concerns over softness in retail and oil-to-chemicals business.
Financials (.NIFTYFIN), opens new tab defied the broader trend, rising about 1% for the week on robust quarterly earnings from HDFC Bank (HDBK.NS), opens new tab and ICICI Bank (ICBK.NS), opens new tab.
"Foreign investors remain uneasy about India's lofty valuations and the underwhelming earnings season hasn't helped," said Santosh Meena, head of research at Swastika Investmart. "The stalled U.S.-India trade deal only deepens market uncertainty."
Foreign investors have been sellers in India in nine of the previous 10 trading sessions.
Negotiations between India and the U.S. have been hampered by deadlock over tariff cuts, dimming hopes of an interim deal ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's August 1 deadline.
Zomato-parent Eternal (ETEA.NS), opens new tab posted its best week on record, rising 20.5% on strong quarterly results.
On the day, Bajaj Finance (BJFN.NS), opens new tab slid 4.7% on asset quality concerns in the MSME segment, while Cipla (CIPL.NS), opens new tab jumped 3% after a strong profit beat.