Sensex, Nifty trade lower; Infosys slips 3%

Benchmark equity indices were trading lower in Friday’s session following weak global cues. The 30-share Sensex was down 223.26 points, or 0.55 per cent, at 40,351.91 in afternoon trade, while the 50-share Nifty index traded 65.15 points lower at 11,903.25.

NTPC hogged limelight after Morgan Stanley upgraded the power major to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Equal-Weight’ earlier with a target price of Rs 152. “Fixed cost under-recovery is reducing and risk-reward is attractive for NTCP,” the brokerage house said.

Among the sectoral indices on BSE, the Telecom, TECk and IT indices lost over 1 per cent in the early trade. Power, Healthcare and Metal advanced between 0.45 per cent and 1.33 per cent.

Commenting on telecom sector, Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said, “They did well recently due to increase in service price and in expectation of relaxation in spectrum payment and AGR. Profit booking is rational as AGR relief is not being considered by the government for the time being while payment of spectrum cost has been spread to 2 years. Cash flow continues as a big concern for companies.”

US stocks closed lower on Thursday as investors moved to the sidelines with mixed messages and no concrete signs of progress on US-China relations. The Dow Jones index declined 55 points, or 0.20 per cent, to 27,766. The S&P500 index inched lower by 5 points, or 0.16 per cent, to 3103.54. The Nasdaq Composite index slipped 20.52 points, or 0.24 per cent, to 8,506.