Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty -- ended Friday’s trading session in a negative territory, ahead of key macroeconomic data, i.e. Inflation and Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data. Market made negative start and turned volatile amid unabated foreign fund outflows. Exchange data showed Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 4,926.61 crore on Thursday. Traders overlooked report that World Bank retained India's gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for FY25 at 7% propelled by higher agricultural production and robust employment growth from policy initiatives, spurring private consumption. Also, the World Bank in its South Asia Development Update said India's manufacturing output would increase by 9 per cent if more women joined the workforce.
In late morning session, index extended its losses as some concern came with a private report stating that India’s retail inflation, based on the Consumer Price Index, likely rose to 5.1% in September from 3.65% in August, primarily due to an unfavourable base effect. In September 2023, CPI inflation was at 5.02%. In afternoon session, index continued to trade in red, as sentiments were downbeat with a private report stating that Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) decision to keep the repo rate unchanged and change the policy stance to neutral indicates that inflation is still the main concern for the central bank. Finally, index ended in red with losses of 34.20 points.