Indian shares fell on Friday as a relentless surge in domestic coronavirus cases threatened to disrupt an economic recovery, with financials falling the most. However, gains in pharmaceuticals, FMCG and heavyweight Reliance Industries helped limit losses.

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The Sensex ended 143 points lower at 36,594 while the Nifty lost 45 points to settle at 10,768.

The indices witnessed their fourth straight week of gains, up around 1.5 percent each after a rally driven by a liquidity flush and hopes for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Cases in India jumped by a record 26,506 to 793,802 as of Friday morning, including 21,604 deaths, health ministry data showed.

Meanwhile, Asian shares and US stock futures too slipped as record surges in many US states stoked fears of new lockdowns that could hurt an economic recovery.

On the Nifty50 index, RIL, Sun Pharma, HUL, Britannia and Bharti Airtel were the top gainers while Axis Bank, GAIL, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, and Bharti Infratel led the losses.

Broader markets also ended in the red with Nifty Midcap and Nifty Smallcap down 0.7 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively.

Among sectors, Nifty Bank and Nifty Fin Service lost around 2 percent each while the auto and metal index lost 0.6 percent and 0.8 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, Nifty Pharma and Nifty Realty surged 0.8 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively. Nifty FMCG also added 0.5 percent for the day.

Punjab National Bank lost over 5 percent after the lender reported fraud in the NPA account of Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL) to the RBI. "A fraud of Rs 3,688.58 crore is being reported by Bank to RBI in the accounts of the Company (DHFL)," PNB said in a stock exchange filing.

Firstsource Solutions ended nearly 7 percent higher after ace investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala increased stake in the company in the June quarter (Q1). Jhunjhunwala upped his stake to 2.88 percent in this quarter from 2.06 percent in the March quarter.

Tata Consultancy Services ended 0.7 percent higher even after the top IT exporter posted a bigger than expected drop in profit.

First Published:Jul 10, 2020 3:34 PM IST