Mumbai: Indian stock indices ended down for the eighth consecutive session on Friday as fresh concern about a trade war between US and China continued to weigh on global market sentiment.

The Sensex and Nifty have lost 4 per cent each during this period. The US on Friday hiked tariffs on more than $200 billion worth of Chinese goods and reports suggest that China could take counter measures against the US move. Experts said caution ahead of the outcome of the national polls on May 23 and weak corporate earnings for the fourth quarter are also driving investors to book profit after a sharp rally since March that took the market to alltime highs in April. The benchmarks opened on a positive note on the last trading day of the week but oscillated between gains and losses during the session before ending in the red. The Nifty ended down 22.90 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 11278.90 and the Sensex lost 95.92 points, or 0.3 per cent, to close at 37462.99. The broader market outperformed the benchmarks, with the BSE MidCap and SmallCap index ending up 0.2 per cent each.

Foreign portfolio investors net sold Indian shares worth Rs 1,245.14 crore on a provisional basis on Friday its biggest one-day sale in the domestic stock market in over two months — and have collectively sold stocks worth Rs 2,500 crore.

Domestic institutional investors bought local stocks worth Rs 1,057.42 crore, the data showed.

Asian markets ended mixed with the Shanghai Composite surging 3 per cent amid speculation that Chinese officials may have intervened to boost the market.

The Sensex ended down 3.8 per cent for the week ended Friday while Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Indonesian markets ended down 1.6-5.1 per cent. “Market is seeing volatility ahead of the elections.

Earnings have not been very good.

India is not trading at cheap valuations either,” said Nitin Bhasin, head of research-institutional equities at Ambit Capital. “Investors are also worried about slowing consumption trends and the impact on the economy,” said Bhasin. Among stocks, Tata Steel slumped 6 per cent to Rs 487.30 after German industrial conglomerate Thyssenkrupp abandoned plans to merge its steel business in Europe with the Tata group.

While Tata Steel ended as the worst performer on the Sensex, HCL Technologies, Yes Bank and IndusInd Bank ended down over 2-4 per cent. Reliance Industries’ shares fell for the fifth consecutive session, ending down 0.4 per cent, taking the total market capitalisation loss this week to Rs 1 lakh crore. Improvement in asset quality in the fourth quarter helped SBI end up 3 per cent at Rs 308.05, while Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank,HDFC, MM and Axis Bank gained 0.5-2.7 per cent. While newsflow on the US-China trade issues is likely to keep the market on its toes in the next few days, the key event to watch out on the domestic front will be the national poll outcome.

The sixth and seventh phase of polling will take place on May 12 and May 19. The Sensex rallied about 12 per cent from its 2019 low of 35287.16 to its lifetime high of 39487.45 on April 18, largely due to a pre-election rally.

But it has retreated 5 per cent from its all-time high levels. The satta market is betting on the Bharatiya Janata Party winning 220-230 seats in the elections, said a head of institutional sales at a domestic brokerage.

This figure stood at 250-260 seats in March in the aftermath of India’s strong response to Pakistan after the Pulwama terror attacks. India’s action against Pakistan was seen helping the Narendra Modi-led BJP’s prospects in the polls.

Pre-poll surveys also indicated a comfortable win for the BJP.