Indian shares post worst week in over 2 years as Mideast fears, foreign outflows weigh
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By Bharath Rajeswaran and Hritam Mukherjee
Oct 4 (Reuters) - Indian shares fell for a fifth session on Friday and posted their worst week in over two years as concerns about the deepening conflict in the Middle East continued to rattle investors, while rising foreign outflows also weighed.
The Nifty 50 index .NSEI fell 0.93% to 25,014.6, while the S&P BSE Sensex .BSESN shed 0.98% to 81,688.45, on the day.
The benchmarks lostabout 4.5% each for the week, their worst since June 2022, with most of the decline dueto a 2% slump on Thursday.
The escalating Middle East conflict rang alarm bells that crude supplies from the top oil-producing region may be disrupted. That has pushed crude prices higher, which hurts net importers such as India.
"Geopolitical landscape remains an active risk, with any further escalation potentially disrupting markets, leading to resurgence in inflation and prompting further correction," said Mahesh Patil, chief investment officer at Aditya Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company.
Analysts also attributed the drop in markets this week to aggressive foreign selling. Foreign outflows from Indian markets hit a record high on Thursday as investors directed inflows into China after its recent stimulus measures.
Barring metals .NIFTYMET, led by JSW Steel JSTL.NS on multiple brokerage upgrades, all the other major sectoral indexes logged weekly losses.
Realty .NIFTYREAL, auto .NIFTYAUTO and energy .NIFTYENR were the top sectoral losers thisweek.
The broader, more domestically-focused small- .NIFSMCP100 and mid-caps .NIFMDCP100 fell 2.5% and 3.2% for the week.
Reliance Industries RELI.NS, the second-heaviestNifty 50 stock, shed 9.2%, leading losses on theindex this week.
On the day, Bajaj Finance BJFN.NS fell about 3% and was among the top five losers on the Nifty 50. Jefferies said the non-bank lender's pre-earnings update showed a moderation in assets under management, with a 12% sequential drop in new loan bookings.
Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services MMFS.NS dropped about 6.6% after posting a decline in disbursements in the September quarter.
India's Nifty 50 set to log worst week since June 2022 https://reut.rs/47RX5ks
Weekly performance of India's key stock indexes https://reut.rs/3Nfn6kl
Weekly performance of India's Nifty 50 stocks https://reut.rs/4gKulOR
Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee and Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips, Sonia Cheema and Savio D'Souza
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