The BSE Sensex failed to hold on to earlier gains and ended slightly down for a fifth consecutive session as investors continued to book profits in recent outperformers such as Larsen and Toubro.
Sentiment remained broadly cautious as the country awaits election results due in mid-May, with the Nifty ending down 1.3 per cent for the week, its biggest weekly fall in three months.
Although foreign investors have continued to buy cash shares, they have turned sellers in index futures, offloading Rs 1,850 crore worth of positions over four straight sessions till Wednesday, exchange and regulatory data show.
Risk factors including reports of fresh violence in Urkaine offset more positive ones such as comfort with the pace of the Federal Reserve's wind-down in monetary stimulus.
"Market is preparing for the election outcome. We can see selective position building happening in the market. We have completed a phase of correction," said Deven Choksey, managing director, KR Choksey Securities.
"Next week, probably we will see position building on the long side and 6,650 is a level on the Nifty which will act as a support," he added.
The Sensex ended 0.06 per cent lower at 22,403.89. It ended 1.25 per cent lower for the week.
The Nifty closed 0.02 per cent lower at 6,694.80, down 1.3 per cent for the week.
Profit-taking was seen in most of the outperformers such as capital goods stocks. Larsen and Toubro ended 2.4 per cent lower, but was still up 18.1 per cent so far this year.
Bucking the trend, technology stocks gained with Tata Consultancy Services rising 0.88 per cent and Infosys ending 1.22 per cent higher ahead of the US nonfarm payroll data later the day.
US employment likely rose at its fastest clip in five months in April and the jobless rate probably dropped in a show of strong economic momentum after a gloomy winter.
Shares in Oil and Natural Gas Corp gained 1.3 per cent after the oil minister ordered that increases in gas prices, put on hold by the election authorities, be backdated to April 1.
Shares in metal companies were down. Tata Steel fell 2.7 per cent, Hindalco Industries closed 2 per cent lower and Jindal Steel and Power ended 6.4 per cent down.
Auto companies also lost ground, with Maruti Suzuki (India) closing 2.1 per cent lower after sales declined by 11.4 per cent.
Mahindra & Mahindra and Bajaj Auto also ended lower.
Shares of Shriram City Union Finance rose as much as 5.7 per cent to a record high after Piramal Enterprises agreed to take a 9.99 per cent stake in the non-banking financial company. Shriram closed 4.3 per cent higher.
Copyright Thomson Reuters 2014
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