BENGALURU (Reuters) -Indian shares ended lower and recorded losses for the month on Friday on declines in conglomerate Reliance Industries and Axis Bank, while the overall sentiment was dampened by concerns around rising inflation.
The NSE Nifty 50 index was down 0.83% at 17,102.55 at close, and the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.8% to 57,060.87.
The benchmark indexes have lost more than 2% in April, hurt by weak earnings from domestic technology firms, fears over the fallout of the Ukraine war, surging inflation and strong policy tightening signals from the Fed.
The Nifty IT index have plunged 12.9% this month.
“Ukraine war situation, pace of interest rate hikes, inflationary, high commodity prices and limited purchasing power of consumers will continue to mount pressure and keep markets rangebound and volatile,” said KK Mittal, investment adviser at Venus India.
Reliance Industries, India’s most valuable company, hit a record high earlier in the session but closed more than 1% lower.
Axis Bank, which reported its March-quarter results on Thursday evening, fell 6.6% and was the top loser on the Nifty 50 index.
The bank reported fourth-quarter operating profit of 64.66 billion rupees ($846.41 million), missing analysts’ average estimate by about 4%.
HDFC Life Insurance Company and Tata Consumer Products gained more than 1% and were among the top gainers on the Nifty 50.
Varroc Engineering closed 8% higher after soaring 20% to its highest since January 2020. The auto components maker said it would divest its four-wheeler lighting systems operations in the Americas and Europe.
Varun Beverages ended 2.3% higher after jumping 8.9% to a record high as its quarterly net profit rose.
($1 = 76.3930 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Chandini Monnappa and Rama Venkat in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi)
