By Porisma P. Gogoi

Mumbai, Mar 10 (IANS): The bears, tracking weak global cues, under-performance by banking sector stocks and outflow of foreign funds, ruled the Indian equity markets during the week ended Friday which saw the BSE Sensex and Nifty50 indices dropping over 2 per cent.

Fears of a global trade war following US President Donald Trump's proposal to impose tariff on import of metals, along with the turmoil in the domestic banking sector, continued to erode the risk-taking appetite of investors.

On a weekly basis, the barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE shed 739.8 points or 2.17 per cent to close at 33,307.14 points.

The wider Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed trade at 10,226.85 points -- down 231.5 points or 2.21 per cent from its previous week's close.

"The week gone by saw the Nifty resuming its intermediate downtrend after a minor loss witnessed last week. There were no sectoral gainers, while the top losers were metal, PSU bank, pharma and infra indices," Deepak Jasani, Head, Retail Research, HDFC Securities, told IANS.

According to D.K. Aggarwal, Chairman and Managing Director of SMC Investments and Advisors, domestic market closed the week in red tracking weak global cues.

"Actually, market participants across the globe reacted to President Donald Trump's decision to impose tariffs on metal imports," Aggarwal told IANS.

"Oil prices fell for a second consecutive week as the dollar strengthened and concerns over rising US crude production continued to mount on signs of an inventory build-up at a key US storage hub," he added.

On the currency front, the rupee closed flat at 65.17 against the US dollar.

"Markets continued to trade lower even though economy growth numbers been positive. The Punjab National Bank fraud (PNB) has taken a big toll on the markets and has resulted in a sell-off in almost all the banks stocks," said Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls.

Desai pointed out that the country's IT sector has emerged as an outperforming sector in the recent correction witnessed in the markets.

"The S&P BSE IT index rose nearly 10 per cent compared to a one per cent fall seen in the S&P BSE Sensex so far in the year 2018," Desai told IANS.

Vinod Nair Head Of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said: "Market continued to be under pressure on concerns impending global trade war, extension of PSU NPA (non-performing assets) worries and rise in bond yields."

PSU Bank index -- the key underperformer -- declined by 5 per cent during the week, Nair said.

"FIIs (foreign institutional investors) are pulling out money given negative cues from both domestic as well on global front. The introduction of Long Term Capital Gains, scam in PNB, repeated signals from the US Fed to hike interest rates rapidly and possibility of downgrades of India weightage from MSCI index are the key factors which is turning FIIs cautious on domestic market," he added.

Provisional figures from the stock exchanges showed that FIIs sold-off scrips worth Rs 280.74 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased scrips worth Rs 131.07 crore during the week.

Figures from the National Securities Depository (NSDL) revealed that foreign portfolio investors invested in equities worth Rs 1,384.36 crore, or $212.98 million, during March 5-9.

The top weekly Sensex gainers were: Asian Paints (up 0.73 per cent at Rs 1,127.75); NTPC (up 0.55 per cent at Rs 163.90); HDFC (up 0.32 per cent at Rs 1,818.45); Infosys (up 0.27 per cent at Rs 1,163.40); and Hero MotoCorp (up 0.21 per cent at Rs 3,587).

The losers were: Tata Steel (down 10.32 per cent at Rs 605.60); Tata Motors (down 7.86 per cent at Rs 341.70); Tata Motors (DVR) (down 7.34 per cent at Rs 192.60); Adani Ports (down 6.95 per cent at Rs 377.30); and Bharti Airtel (down 5.81 per cent at Rs 401.95).