Sensex skids from record high as Moody's cuts India credit outlook

Mumbai: Equity benchmark BSE Sensex tumbled 330 points on Friday as investors pressed the exit button after Moody's cut India's credit rating outlook citing growth concerns.

Profit-booking following the recent record-setting run and unease over frothy valuations also took their toll, analysts said.

Trading on a weak note though the day, the 30-share Sensex briefly turned positive to hit a fresh intra-day high of 40,749.33, but failed to sustain the momentum. It finally ended 330.13 points, or 0.81 per cent lower at 40,323.61.

Similarly, the broader NSE Nifty plunged 103.90 points, or 0.86 per cent, to end at 11,908.15.

The Sensex had closed at fresh lifetime highs in three of the five sessions this week, while the Nifty had reclaimed the key 12,000-mark after five months.

During the action-packed week, the Sensex advanced 158.58 points or 0.39 per cent, and the Nifty inched up 17.55 points or 0.14 per cent.

Top losers in the Sensex pack on Friday included Sun Pharma, Vedanta, ONGC, TCS, HUL, ITC, NTPC, Asian Paints and Infosys, shedding up to 4.23 per cent.

On the other hand, Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Bank, Tech Mahindra and HCL Tech rose up to 3.76 per cent.

Moody's Investors Service cut country's credit rating outlook to negative -- the first step towards a downgrade, saying the government has been partly ineffective in addressing economic weakness, leading to rising risks that growth will remain lower.

The Indian rupee too depreciated 33 paise to 71.30 against the US dollar intra-day.

"Rating downgrade forced investors to book profit in a volatile market and rupee weakened to 3-week low. Given the subdued performance of the equity market during the year, MF inflows fell to four-month low while premium valuation of large and blue-chips is not attracting new funds in the market," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.

Sectorally, BSE FMCG, metal, oil and gas, healthcare, IT, teck, telecom and power indices fell up to 1.80 per cent.

BSE realty, bankex and consumer durables indices rose up to 1.55 per cent.

Broader BSE midcap and smallcap indices too ended up to 0.79 per cent lower.

Meanwhile, MSCI, the world's biggest index compiler, has added eight Indian stocks including HDFC Asset Management, Info Edge (India) and Indraprastha Gas Ltd to its India Index, while removing Vodafone Idea, Yes Bank, BHEL, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals, Indiabulls Housing Finance and L&T Finance Holdings.

MSCI also added seven stocks and deleted four from MSCI Global Standard Index. The additions include Berger Paints, Colgate, DLF, HDFC AMC, ICICI Prudential Life, SBI Life, and Siemens. The deletions from the global index include Glenmark, Indiabulls Housing, Vodafone Idea, and Yes Bank.

On the global front, markets wavered amid lack of concrete progress on the US-China trade negotiations.

Bourses in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Seoul settled on a negative note, while Tokyo ended in the green.

Exchanges in Europe too were trading lower in their respective early deals.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, fell 1.24 per cent to USD 61.53 per barrel.