The BSE Sensex fell 298 points, or 0.4%, to 84,181 in early trade on Friday, after ending nearly flat in the previous session and pulling back from a two-week high. The decline tracked a fall on Wall Street overnight amid a sell-off in IT stocks and fading hopes of Fed monetary policy easing at the December meeting. Traders also turned cautious ahead of the Bihar election results, scheduled to be announced today. However, the end of the US government shutdown, optimism over US–India trade deals, and expectations of an RBI interest rate cut in the upcoming meeting helped limit the losses. Most sectors traded in the red, led by IT stocks, tracking the overnight sell-off in the Nasdaq, with Infosys (-2.5%) and Tech Mahindra (-1.0%) among the key drags. Other sectors were also in negative territory, including metals and banking, with notable declines in JSW Steel (-1.0%) and ICICI Bank (-0.9%). However, the index is heading for a 2.7% weekly gain, its first increase in three weeks.
