Sensex and Nifty halt eight-day winning streak pressured by financial and IT shares

Varun Beverages, BHEL, Bharat Electronics, AB Capital and L&T Technology were top Nifty Midcap gainers. On the other hand, Adani Total Gas, Ashok Leyland, Hind Zinc, Escorts Kubota and Bank of Baroda were the top nifty laggards.

"With IT stocks supporting the Bulls well this week, today we witnessed price action across select themes in the Small & Midcap space. On a day when Auto stocks dragged indices down post the monthly numbers, the street focused attention in the broader markets to segments like Tyres, Pipes & Sugar buoyed by positive newsflow as many stocks were keenly sought after in these pockets," said S Ranganathan, Head of Research at LKP Securities.

Auto stocks continued the losing momentum on November sales with Eicher and M&M dragging the sectoral index lower. Financial and IT stocks were the biggest losers, while oil and gas shares were the top gainers.

Overall market breadth favoured the bulls at the close, as 2,030 stocks rose and 1,455 fell on BSE.

The rupee ended 10 paise lower from its previous close at 81.32 against the US dollar.

European markets traded lower on Friday, a day after hitting six-month high, as investors await US payroll data. Stoxx 600 index was last trading marginally lower.

S&P 500 futures were down 0.1 percent, suggesting a flat to negative start ahead on Wall Street.