Indian indices settled marginally lower on Friday after the country's central bank kept its interest rate unchanged at 6.5% and reduced the cash reserve ratio (CRR) by 50 basis points.
The Reserve Bank of India's CRR cut is expected to boost the banking system's liquidity, however, the markets remained weak as the regulator downgraded the country's growth forecast for fiscal 2025 to 6.6%.
At the close, the BSE Sensex fell 56.74 points, or 0.1%, to 81,709.12, while the NSE Nifty 50 slipped 30.60 points, or also 0.1%, to 24,677.80.
Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone (NSE:ADANIPORTS, BOM:532921) topped the losers on Friday, sliding 2%, followed by Cipla (NSE:CIPLA, BOM:500087) and Bharti Airtel (NSE:BHARTIARTL, BOM:532454) were the top laggards.
Conversely, Tata Motors (NSE:TATAMOTORS, BOM:500570), Bajaj Auto (NSE:BAJAJ-AUTO, BOM:532977) and Axis Bank (NSE:AXISBANK, BOM:532215) were the gainers.
In corporate news, Adani Wilmar (NSE:AWL, BOM:543458) appointed Shrikant Kanhere as deputy chief executive officer in addition to his current role as chief financial officer, according to a Friday filing with the stock exchanges.
Meanwhile, car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki India (NSE:MARUTI, BOM:532500) plans to raise the prices of its cars to up to 4% from January 2025, according to a Friday filing with the bourses.