Sensex, Nifty End Sharply Lower Despite Firm Global Cues

(RTTNews) - Indian shares ended Friday's session deep in the red despite encouraging cues from global markets.

Giving up early gains, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex ended the session down 732.96 points, or 0.98 percent, at 73,878.15.

The broader NSE Nifty index hit record levels in the first hour of trade before reversing course to end at 22,475.85, down 172.35 points, or 0.76 percent, from its previous close.

The broader BSE mid-cap and small-cap indexes dropped 0.2 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively on fears of high-for-longer U.S. interest rates and lingering uncertainty surrounding the General Election 2024 outcome.

Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, Nestle India, Maruti Suzuki India and Larsen & Toubro fell 2-3 percent in the Nifty pack while Coal India jumped 4.8 percent post its Q4 earnings results announcement.

Hindalco, Apollo Hospitals Enterprise, ONGC and Grasim rose between 0.7 percent and 1.5 percent.

Global cues were mostly positive following Apple's quarterly earnings beat and its announcement of a massive buyback program.

After the U.S. Federal Reserve flagged inflation concerns and signaled delayed rate cuts, investors looked ahead to the release of the all-important nonfarm payrolls report later in the day for a clearer outlook on the labor market and the interest rate path.