Indian shares were muted on Friday, as investors remained cautious after a weak revenue outlook from HCLTech Ltd and ahead of the quarterly earnings of the country’s top firm by market capitalisation, Reliance Industries Ltd.
The Nifty 50 was down 0.15% to 17,598.50, as of 10:31 a.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex lost 0.11%. Both indexes are on course to log weekly losses.
Eight of the 13 major sectoral indexes declined. India’s third-largest IT firm by revenue, HCLTech, rose as much as 3.52% after reporting a rise in consolidated net profit for the March quarter on Thursday.
But caution over the IT sector prevailed as the company forecast lower-than-expected revenue growth for FY2024 on spending cuts and project ramp-downs.
IT stocks, which are currently up 0.2%, have led the recent slide in the markets, following the weak earnings reports from Tata Consultancy Services Ltd and Infosys Ltd.
The benchmark Nifty 50 is down over 1% so far this week, while the heavyweight IT has lost 6%.
Investors also awaited Reliance’s quarterly results, due post market hours on Friday.
Analysts expected markets to remain choppy in the near term, as earnings trickle in. ”The Nifty patterns suggest that major decline is unlikely as long as the benchmark traded above the immediate support level of 17,550,” said analysts at brokerage SMIFS Ltd.
”Time is ripe to accumulate quality stocks which have shown resilience during the recent corrective move,” Ajit Mishra, vice president – technical research at Religare Broking said.
Among individual stocks, Cyient Ltd surged over 9% after reporting a 48% rise in revenue in the March quarter on a strong deal pipeline.
Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy Ltd lost 8% after reporting a widened consolidated net loss in the fourth quarter.
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