Sensex flat; Nifty headed for first weekly loss in five

By Vishal Sridhar

REUTERS - The NSE Nifty swung between gains and losses on Friday and was headed for its first weekly loss in six, as a fall in information technology and pharmaceutical shares on worries over their earnings outlook offset a bounceback in bank stocks.

The index was trading 0.11 percent higher as of 0656 GMT, but was down 0.8 percent for the week. It ended each of the previous five weeks higher, its longest gaining streak since late 2014.

The market has seen consolidation after setting a series of record highs, but analysts maintain that the outlook remains positive given the prospects of an improving economy.

"The general market sentiment is positive except for IT and pharma sectors, which have their own problems of growth," said Rakesh Tarway, head of research at Reliance Securities.

The benchmark BSE Sensex was up 0.12 percent for the day, and down 0.48 percent for the week, heading for its second consecutive weekly loss.

Banking stocks made a comeback after consolidating in the past few sessions and the Nifty PSU bank index gained 0.33 percent. The index ended lower in three of the last four sessions.

IT shares fell on worries over outlook at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump is contemplating tougher visa actions in a key market for software services exporters.

Infosys was down 0.82 percent after its co-chairman, Ravi Venkatesan, was quoted by The Economic Times newspaper as saying the company's goal of achieving a revenue target of $20 billion by 2020 did not look "achievable."

Wipro Ltd led the fall and was down as much as 2.8 percent.

Drug makers also fell amid worries about their earnings outlook because of pricing pressures in the United States.

Meanwhile, shares of IPCA Laboratories Ltd fell as much as 15.3 pct to 436.1 rupees after the U.S. FDA barred entry of certain drugs into the United States from the company's manufacturing units at Indore, Piparia and Ratlam.

(Reporting by Vishal Sridhar in Bengaluru; Editing by Vyas Mohan)