Nifty Falls for Second Week on Geopolitical Concerns

The Nifty and Sensex fell more than 1 per cent on Friday, marking their second consecutive weekly decline, as blue-chips such as Larsen & Toubro slumped on global risk aversion after U.S. President Barack Obama authorised targeted air strikes in Iraq.

The broader Nifty lost 1.05 percent, its third straight session of falls, while also closing below its 50-day moving average for the first time since February 21.

Market analyst Sarvendra Srivastava sees global selloff intensifying further and he expects Nifty to slide to 7,000 levels.

Legendary investor Jim Rogers also expects US markets to fall further. Despite the recent correction, the US markets are down just 5 per cent from all-time highs and in the last three years they did not have any meaningful correction, he adds.

The realty and metal stocks were the most hit in today's selloff. The realty sectoral index on the BSE fell nearly 4 per cent while the metal index dropped over 3 per cent. Among major Nifty losers, Sesa Sterlite fell nearly 6 per cent while DLF slumped 4.3 per cent.

Larsen & Toubro lost 2.7 per cent while HDFC Bank fell 1.9 per cent. The Nifty fell 80.70 points to close to at 7,568 while Sensex ended 259 points lower at 25,329. (With Reuters Inputs)