Sensex set for weekly fall, caution prevails ahead of earnings

REUTERS - Indian shares were headed for a weekly fall on Friday as investors braced themselves for the start of the quarterly earnings season, with global equity markets cautiously lower ahead of U.S. jobs data.

With the European economy threatened by Britain's decision to leave the EU, investors are counting on the resilience of the U.S. economy to support global growth as they await closely-followed U.S. payrolls report later on Friday.

Markets back home were a bit groggy after having rallied about 19 percent since hitting a near two-year low on Feb. 29 amid forecasts for above-normal monsoon rains after successive droughts and a recovery in company earnings in the March quarter.

Investors were also girding themselves for quarterly earnings, starting with software maker Infosys on July 15.

"Global events will keep investors restless but domestically, things have improved. So if I have to trade on Nifty, I would lighten my position ahead of the earnings but for broader markets, domestic-focussed stocks will remain of interest," said Amar Ambani, head of research at IIFL.

Investors are now awaiting the approval of the goods and services tax (GST) bill in the upcoming session of parliament that starts on July 18 and policy measures by the new central bank chief to prop up stocks.

At 0751 GMT, the broader NSE index was down 0.17 percent at 8,324.54 while the benchmark BSE index fell 0.31 percent to 27,117.82.

Among the losers, telecom stocks such as Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular fell 2.4 percent and 2.8 percent respectively after the Department of Telecommunication said it is in the process of issuing demand notices to six operators for a combined payment of 120 billion rupees in payments for "understatement of revenue" between 2006/07 to 2009/10.

Zee Learn, which runs the Kidzee chain of pre-schools, surged 10.4 percent after its profit before tax for the June quarter more than doubled to 80.1 million rupees.

Lupin rose 1 percent, its second session of gains, after the drugmaker said the US Food and Drug Administration had concluded the inspection of its Goa facility.

(Reporting by Aastha Agnihotri in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair)