Sensex loses 261 pts in 2 straight sessions after hitting 3-month high; PC Jeweller up 44%

The market closed lower for the second consecutive session on Friday after hitting three-month high, dragged by profit booking and weak Asian cues. ITC, Reliance Industries, HDFC, Infosys and select banking stocks pulled the market lower.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 187.76 points at 34,915.38 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 61.40 points to 10,618.30.

For the week, the Sensex lost 0.7 percent and Nifty shed 1.1 percent after rallying 7 percent for the previous five consecutive sessions.

On the global front, Asian markets ended in the red as investors monitored trade talks between the US and China. Hong Kong's Hang Seng and South Korea's Kospi were down 1 percent each while China's Shanghai Composite declined 0.3 percent and Australia's ASX 200 fell 0.6 percent.

European stocks traded higher amid US-China trade talks, and ahead of key economic data. Britain's FTSE and Germany's DAX were up half a percent at the time of writing this article.

Back home, all sectoral indices ended in the red barring Nifty Bank. Nifty Auto, FMCG, Metal and Pharma were prominent losers among sectoral indices, falling more than 1 percent.

HDFC Bank with a gain of 1 percent and ICICI Bank (up 0.3 percent) helped the Nifty Bank close in the green.

The broader markets outperformed frontliners, with the BSE Midcap index falling 35 points and BSE Smallcap declining 25 points.

The market breadth was in favour of declines. About three shares declined for every two shares rising on the BSE.

ITC (down 2.75 percent), Axis Bank (2.46 percent), Yes Bank (2.5 percent), Eicher Motors (2.2 percent), Sun Pharma (3.4 percent) and Bajaj Auto (2.91 percent) were biggest losers among Nifty50 stocks while Adani Ports (up 2.8 percent), Tech Mahindra (1.5 percent) and GAIL (2 percent) were prominent gainers.

In after market hours news, capital market regulator SEBI said it has allowed exchanges to extend trading hours in derivatives segment between 9 AM-11:55 PM, with effect from October 1, 2018.

Meanwhile, the Indian rupee closed at 66.87 against the US dollar, down 22 paise compared to previous close.

On the stock front, Bharti Airtel share price rallied more than 3 percent in morning after a media report indicated that the company is planning to raise funds through stake dilution in African unit. But it lost all those gains to close 2 percent lower.

Ambuja Cements, part of global conglomerate LafargeHolcim Ltd, posted a 10.3 percent rise in its first-quarter profit, underpinned by higher cement sales volumes. The stock closed 1.4 percent lower at Rs 236.95 as profit missed estimates.

Mid-sized IT services firm Hexaware Technologies share price fell 14 percent despite it posted a 11 percent rise QoQ in consolidated net profit at Rs 134.3 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2018.

NIIT Technologies was also down 3 percent despite it has reported a 17.8 percent growth in March quarter profit after tax at Rs 97.3 crore compared to Rs 82.6 crore in previous quarter.

State-run lender Bank of Maharashtra share price rallied 8 percent after it has reduced its March quarter loss sharply to Rs 113.51 crore on sequential as well as year-on-year basis.

Mumbai-based real estate developer Godrej Properties has reported more than 2-fold increase in March quarter profit at Rs 141.5 crore YoY, driven by other income and higher revenue. The company also raised Rs 1,000 crore through private placement. The stock closed 3 percent higher.

HCC shares bounced back and gained over 5 percent to close at Rs 18.45 after management commentary w.r.t the Lavasa issue.

PC Jeweller extended rally, rising 44 percent on top of 10 percent upside in previous session after the managing director, Balram Garg yesterday denied investigation by SEBI and CBI.