(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Indian stocks retreated, led by industrials and consumer goods companies, as a contraction in the nation's factory output countered better-than-expected earnings by Infosys Ltd.
About five shares fell for every one that increased on the BSE India Sensitive Index, or Sensex, which lost 0.1 per cent to 19,639.34, according to preliminary closing prices in Mumbai. The gauge fell 0.7 per cent this week.
ITC, India's biggest cigarette company and Bharat Heavy Electricals, the top maker of power equipments, retreated more than two per cent each. Infosys, India's second-largest software exporter, soared 17 per cent after raising its full-year sales forecast.
Industrial output fell 0.1 per cent in November from a year earlier, government data showed. The median of 34 estimates in a Bloomberg survey was for a 0.1 per cent gain.
Foreigners have bought a net $1.4 billion of shares this year, more than three times the level at the same time in 2012, exchange data show. The Sensex closed near a two-year high on January 8.
"While the market is being supported by liquidity from foreign investors there are enough things to worry about on the ground," Dilip Bhat, joint managing director at Mumbai-based Prabhudas Lilladher, told Bloomberg TV India on Friday.
The Sensex jumped 26 per cent in 2012, its biggest annual gain since 2009.
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