Equity indices buckled under selling pressure for the second straight day on Friday as slowing growth and lack of buying triggers took a toll on investor sentiment.

The market mood was risk-averse a day after the RBI disappointed on the rate cut front and also projected slower growth for this fiscal, traders said. Additionally, concerns over the fiscal deficit and a weakening rupee weighed on bourses, they added.

After opening on a positive note, the 30-share BSE Sensex witnessed a continuous slide and went on to hit an intra-day low of 40337.53. The index finally settled at 40445.15, down 334.44 points, or 0.82 per cent.

Likewise, the 50-share Nifty shed 96.90 points, or 0.81 per cent, to settle at 11921.50.

Yes Bank was the biggest laggard in the Sensex pack on Friday, diving 9.82 per cent after Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the private sector lender’s ratings.

Other top losers were SBI, IndusInd Bank, Tata Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra and HDFC, tumbling up to 4.89 per cent.

“Clouds over economic growth outlook and premium valuation influenced investors to stay away from rate-sensitive stocks. Rising 10-year yields due to the spike in inflation and potential slip in fiscal path may result in near term consolidation in the market,” said Vinod Nair, head of research at Geojit Financial Services.

“The market fell largely on the back of a sudden rally in 10-year G-Sec, which closed higher at 6.65. This triggered weakness in financials and other rate-sensitive sectors. Also, the breadth of the broader market has turned poor,” said Shrikant Chouhan, senior vice-president, equity technical research, Kotak Securities.

Sectorally, the BSE auto index suffered the most by losing over 1.80 per cent, followed by finance, utilities, realty and bankex.

Oil stocks skid

Shares of oil and gas companies fell amid reports that Opec and other major producers will announce fresh output cuts.

ONGC fell 1.39 per cent, HPCL 0.47 per cent, IOC 0.23 per cent and BPCL 0.20 per cent. Shares of Petronet LNG saw a dip of 0.17 per cent to Rs 271.65.

According to reports, Opec and Russia along with other producers agreed to one of the biggest output cuts to prevent oversupply in the market.