Indian shares fell slightly on Friday, with a lack of political consensus on crucial reforms and weak global cues weighing on investor sentiment. Finally there was some respite for the government after the Supreme Court dismissed a plea for making finance minister P Chidambaram co-accused in the 2G spectrum allocation scam.
Meanwhile, the government today rejected the CAG report on allocation of coal blocks maintaining that the presumptive loss of Rs.1.85 lakh crore ($37 billion) loss to the exchequer was flawed as no mining has taken place as yet.
Dragged down by metal and bank stocks, the benchmark Sensex ended the session down 67 points or 0.38 percent at 17,783, while the broader Nifty index fell by 29 points or 0.53 percent to 5,387.
Tata Steel, Jindal Steel, Hindalco, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Power, NTPC and Infosys led the decliners, falling 1-3 percent, while Coal India rose 2.2 percent on reports it has sought shareholder nod to buyback its own shares.
ONGC shares gained about 2 percent after the state-run oil explorer signed a pact with Mitsui & Company of Japan for sourcing LNG from international suppliers. Cipla, Maruti Suzuki, Sterlite Industries, ITC, Dr Reddy's, HDFC and Wipro were the other prominent gainers in the Sensex pack.
On the global front, Asian markets fell across the board and European stocks were lackluster in early trading after a Fed official dashed stimulus hopes, saying current economic conditions weren't weak to justify another round of stimulus.
by RTT Staff Writer
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