By Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran
(Reuters) -India’s equity benchmarks ended at a one-month low on Friday, marking their longest weekly losing streak so far in 2025 as a broad sell-off driven by weak earnings, foreign outflows and global trade uncertainty dented investor sentiment.
The Nifty 50 and the BSE Sensex fell 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively, for the week dragged by a 0.9% drop on Friday to close at 24,837 points and 81,463.09 points, respectively. This was their fourth consecutive weekly decline.
Eleven of the 16 major sectors declined for the week, with information technology, oil and gas and consumer goods topping sectoral losses.
The IT index slid 4.1%, dragged by lacklustre earnings. Infosys fell 4.4% amid concerns over weak client spending and tepid Q1 commentary.
The broader small-cap and mid-cap indexes logged weekly losses of 3.5% and 1.9%, respectively.
The FMCG index <.NIFTYFMCG> lost 3.4%, also pressured by disappointing results from Nestle India and Colgate Palmolive India.
Oil and gas lost 3.5%, dragged by 5.7% drop in heavyweight Reliance Industries on concerns over softness in retail and oil-to-chemicals business.
Financials defied the broader trend, rising about 1% for the week on robust quarterly earnings from HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank.
“Foreign investors remain uneasy about India’s lofty valuations and the underwhelming earnings season hasn’t helped,” said Santosh Meena, head of research at Swastika Investmart. “The stalled U.S.-India trade deal only deepens market uncertainty.”
Foreign investors have been sellers in India in nine of the previous 10 trading sessions.
Negotiations between India and the U.S. have been hampered by deadlock over tariff cuts, dimming hopes of an interim deal ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s August 1 deadline.
Zomato-parent Eternal posted its best week on record, rising 20.5% on strong quarterly results.
On the day, Bajaj Finance slid 4.7% on asset quality concerns in the MSME segment, while Cipla jumped 3% after a strong profit beat.
(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran; Editing by Sumana Nandy,Sonia Cheema and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)
