Mumbai: Indian shares eased 0.3% on Friday, with state-run explorer Oil & Natural Gas Corp and top motorcycle maker Hero Honda among the losers after weak quarterly results.
Outsourcers such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro fell on concerns over the pace of economic recovery in the United States, their biggest market.
“Recent key earnings have been a mixed bag. Global markets are also under pressure. These things are weighing on our market,” said Neeraj Dewan, director of Quantum Securities.
By 11:44am, the 30-share BSE index was trading down 0.25% at 17,946.40, with 19 of its components declining.
Hero Honda fell as much as 4.3% to Rs1,790.65 after it posted a 1.6% drop in quarterly net profit, its first decline in 11 quarters, and analysts said margins would remain under pressure in the current quarter as well.
JPMorgan cut its share price target for the stock to Rs1,845 by next March from Rs1,915.
ONGC dropped as much as 1.7% as it reported a more-than-expected 24.5% drop in quarterly profit, as a rise in crude oil prices meant it had to make higher subsidy payouts.
Tata Consultancy dropped 0.7%, Infosys shed 0.8% and Wipro lost nearly 1%, after glum outlooks issued by US technology companies and downbeat comments from a US Federal Reserve official.
Energy giant Reliance Industries, which has the highest weight on the Sensex, climbed 0.8%, after declining 4.1% in the previous two sessions on concerns over the delay in the ramp up of its gas production.
In the broader market, gainers led losers in a ratio of 1.6:1 on volume of 157 million shares.
For the week to 28 July, India equity funds had their eighth-straight week of inflows while Asia ex-Japan had the biggest inflow in 14 weeks, according to EPFR Global.
The BSE index has risen 2.7% in the year to date, helped by foreign equity inflows of $9.3 billion since the start of January to 28 July, data from the Securities and Exchange Board of India showed.
The 50-share NSE index was down 0.3% at 5,393.55.
STOCKS
Kalpataru Power which makes transmission line towers and is also into real estate development, rose 1.3% to Rs1,010 after its April-June net profit rose 15%.
Real estate firm Omaxe jumped 6.1% to Rs117.25 on a 38.7% rise in quarterly profit.
Titagarh Wagons rose 3.8% to Rs415.50 after its April-June net profit jumped 84%.