Key equity indices ended in the negative terrain on Friday as global concerns spread nervousness among local investors. Markets made a soft start this morning on the back of mixed cues from the Asian markets. A lower-than-expected manufacturing and retail data in the US has raised a big question mark on the global recovery. Besides, probability of US reporting weak employment data, which will be released today, also weighed sentiments across the globe. Back home, markets are finding it difficult to conquer their intermediate highs as market participants are still sceptical about the valuations and they are opting to book profit at every high. The volatile session of trade resulted in marketmen taking some profit off the table in auto, banking and oil & gas counters while they accumulated healthcare, technology and fast moving consumer goods stocks. Long list of losers on the 30-share BSE Sensex was topped by leading auto makers - Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra and Hero Honda. The re-listing of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group's (ADAG) Reliance Media World received an overwhelming response from investors in trade. Finally, the BSE Sensex declined 84.14 points or 0.49% to settle at 17,101.54, while the S&P CNX Nifty shed 22.80 points or 0.44% to end at 5108.90. The market breadth on the BSE was weak; the losers narrowly outnumbered the gainers in a ratio of 1435:1372 while 60 shares remained unchanged in trade. The BSE Sensex touched a high and a low of 17,291.83 and 17,032.81, respectively. Bharti Airtel up 0.99%, TCS up 0.77%, Rel Infra up 0.77%, Hindalco Industries up 0.68% and Tata Motors up 0.60% were the major gainers on the Sensex. On the other hand, Maruti Suzuki down 2.44%, M&M down 2.17%, Hero Honda down 1.61%, ICICI Bank down 1.42% and ONGC down 1.39% were the major losers on the Sensex. The BSE Mid-cap index dipped 0.19% while the BSE Small-cap index added 0.38% in trade. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Thursday that it might revise the growth forecast for current fiscal upward in wake of the strong growth registered in the second quarter. Indian economy grew at 7.9% in Jul-Sept 2009, compared with expectations of 6.3%. The RBI however may also have to start tightening its ultra loose monetary policy earlier than planned in wake of strong demand side momentum reflected in Q2 GDP numbers. Usha Thorat, Deputy Governor of the RBI, said that India's exit from expansionary policies would be a challenge and managing the crisis was easier than managing the recovery now. The RBI had in its latest quarterly review increased the fiscal-end forecast for inflation to 6.5% from 5% given three months earlier, reflecting the increasing inflationary tendencies in the country. Among the BSE sectoral indices the main gainers were Healthcare (HC) up 1.24%, TECk up 0.37%, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) up 0.36%, Information Technology (IT) up 0.34% and Metal up 0.29%. Biocon (up 6.84%) from HC, NDTV (up 7.68%) from TECk, United Breweries (up 12.63%) from FMCG, Financial Tech (up 2.33%) from IT and Jindal Steel (up 2.32%) from Metal were the main gainers on the respective indices. Auto down 1.47%, Bankex down 1.18%, Oil & Gas down 0.97%, Realty down 0.71% and Consumer Durables (CD) down 0.49% were the main losers in the BSE sectoral space. World Bank sees Indian economy returning to the high growth path within next couple of years, provided the government continues the infrastructure investment drive and does much more to take care of bottlenecks that can thwart the growth momentum. President of the World Bank Robert Zoellick said on Friday that India was likely to return to a higher growth trajectory of 8-9% in two years, but it needs to invest more in infrastructure for sustaining such growth. The S&P CNX Nifty touched a high and a low of 5161.80 and 5081.85, respectively. Cipla up 3.68%, BPCL up 2.37%, Idea up 2.23%, Jindal Steel up 2.22% and Bharti Airtel up 1.50% were the top gainers on the Nifty. On the other hand, GAIL down 3.65%, Maruti Suzuki down 3.01%, RPower down 2.52%, Unitech down 2.22% and Cairn down 2.12% were the top losers on the benchmark index. India's real estate space is a likely candidate for some consolidation activity in the near term, according to the industry body Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci). Bigger players may go for either outright buy or forge some form of business alliances with smaller players, it said. Ficci secretary general Amit Mitra said in an interview to a news agency that the Indian real estate sector was likely to see a phase of consolidation in the industry. He added that the bigger players present domestically and with good project execution abilities and financial muscle might go for either a full takeover or enter into joint ventures or business alliances with smaller developers in the sector. Among European markets, France's CAC 40 shed 0.60%, Germany's DAX declined 0.59% and Britain's FTSE 100 dipped 0.68%. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Thursday that the financial crisis in Dubai was a localised problem and would not have any serious implications for Indian economy. But it may have some impact on remittances and would affect those parts of the country that receive large inflows from the Gulf nation, said the Indian banking regulator. 'Some parts of the country are certainly more dependent on remittances from Dubai but overall I think it is too early to say. There could be some impact obviously', RBI Deputy Governor Usha Thorat said, when asked about the impact of the crisis on the country. Asian markets ended mixed on Friday as investors opted to book profit ahead of the US employment data. Fall in the Institute for Supply Management's index for activity in the US service industry to 48.7 in November from 50.6 in October has raised apprehensions of weaker employment data. Shanghai Composite added 52.42 points or 1.61% to 3,317.04, Nikkei 225 advanced 44.92 points or 0.45% to 10,022.59 and Seoul Composite gained 9.76 points or 0.60% to 1,624.76. On the other hand, Hang Seng declined 55.72 points or 0.25% to 22,498.15, Straits Times shed 17.17 points or 0.61% to 2,791.01 and Taiwan Weighted tumbled 33.76 points or 0.44% to 7,650.91. | 
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