Indian equity markets edged lower on Friday. The Sensex fell over 100 point to 31,101 while the Nifty50 index shed nearly30 points to 9,615.35 as IT stocks led by Infosys witnessed selling pressure. Infosys shares fell over 3 per cent after a Times of India report citing sources said that its founders are exploring a sale of their entire 12.75 per cent stake in the company valuing around Rs 28,000 crore. Other IT stocks like Wipro, Tech Mahindra, TCS, also fell between 0.9-1.6 per cent. The IT sub-index of NSE fell nearly 1.2 per cent.
Meanwhile, Energy shares led by Reliance Industries gained. Reliance Industries was up 1.2 per cent to be the top gainer in Nifty followed by Yes Bank, Indiabulls Housing Finance and IndusInd Bank, which rose between 0.8-1.1 per cent.
Elsewhere, other Asian shares traded mostly higher. Japan's Nikkei added 0.7 per cent and MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan inched up 0.3 per cent.
Overnight, US shares ended mostly flat after FBI director James Comey accused Donald Trump of firing him to try to undermine the investigation into possible collusion by his campaign team with Russia's alleged efforts to influence the 2016 election. The Dow rose 0.04 per cent, while the S&P 500 gained 0.03 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.39 per cent.
Sterling fell sharply on Friday as British elections seemed to leave no single party with a clear claim to power, sideswiping investors who had already weathered major risk events in the United States and Europe.The pound shed as much as 2 per cent before steadying.
As of 9:40 am, Sensex was down 65 points at 31,148 and Nifty fell 19 points at 9,628. (With agency inputs)
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