Markets slip amid weak European cues

Benchmark share indices ended lower on Friday, tracking weakness in Europe, with index heavyweight Reliance and bank shares leading the decline.

At the close, the Sensex was down 110 points at 18,682 and the Nifty had given off 34 points to end the week at 5,684.

Earlier in the day, the markers started marginally lower.

In the intra-day trades, the Sensex had touched a low of 18,612 and a high of 18,770.

In the broader markets, the midcap index closed in line with the Sensex, down 0.5% while the smallcap index ended down 0.3%.

Technical analyst, Salil Sharma indicates that on the downside, Nifty has an important support at 5,620.

This is a critical level and if the index breaks this level then it can go down to 5,530.

On the upside, resistance is seen at 5,755 and this level is taken then Nifty may move up to 5,825 levels. If there is a rate cut then we may move to a higher trajectory.

Asian markets closed on a mixed note.

Japan's Nikkei share average topped the 9,000 level on Friday to log its best weekly gain in nearly a year as expectations of easing from the Bank of Japan and robust risk sentiment on the back of an improved global outlook softened the yen for the seventh day.

The index was up 0.2% at 9,003.the only other market in the green was Hang Seng up 0.1%.Shanghai Composite closed down nearly 0.2% at 2,128.

In the European markets, CAC, DAX and FTSE opened in the red, losing 0.1-0.4%.

Back home, among the sectoral indices on the BSE, FMCG and Consumer Durables which was up 0.8% and 0.4%

were the indices to close in the green.

On the other hand, Power, Metal, Capital Goods and Auto indices slipped 1% each. Bankex and Oil & Gas gave off 0.8% each.

The only gainers among the Sensex-30 were ITC up 2% at Rs 297.5, also its lifetime high, after reporting a better-than-expected 21% year-on-year growth in net profit at Rs 1,836 crore for the second quarter ended September 2012 on back of higher sales.

Analysts on an average had forecast profit at Rs 1,724 crore from the fast moving consumer goods major.

Hero MotoCorp, Dr Reddys Lab, Bharti Airtel and Infosys were the other notable gainers which added between 0.3-0.5%.

On the other hand the draggers were Hindalco, Jindal Steel, Gail India, BHEL and Tata Power down 2-2.5%.

From the financial space, profit booking was witnessed in HDFC, HDFC Bank, SBI and ICICI Bank which gave off 1% each.

Index heavyweight, Reliance Industries dipped by nearly 1% to Rs 803. Reliance Industries told analysts there has been "no significant improvement in ground-level decision making" which has impacted the business environment.

The country's largest private sector petroleum company has been peeved with the government for blocking of approvals and non-revision of gas prices produced from its underperforming KG-D6 block.

The market breadth was negative. 1586 stocks declined while 1275 stocks advanced on the BSE.