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Domestic equity benchmarks suffered sharp losses in afternoon deals on Friday amid selling pressure in spaces such as financial services and FMCG though buying interest in metal stocks lent some support, helping the main gauges avoid deeper cuts. Both headline indices fell as much as 0.8 per cent in intraday trade, with the Sensex losing 651.1 points to hit 81,608.1 on the downside and the Nifty50 sliding 192.8 points to 24,918.7. 

The 50-blue-chip index has stayed rangebound for much of this month, largely see-sawing within the 25,000-25,600 band. 

At 2 pm, the Sensex was down 558.3 points at 81,701 while the Nifty50 was down 156.7 points at 24,954.8. 

Axis Bank was the top blue-chip loser, trading 4.7 per cent lower in afternoon deals. Shriram Finance, BEL, HDFC Life and Tech Mahindra--trading around 1-2 per cent lower each--were the worst hit stocks among the 37 losers in the Nifty50 basket. 

On the other hand, Wipro, Tata Steel and ONGC shares--trading around 1-2 per cent higher each--were among the top gainers. 

Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel were the biggest contributors to the fall in both main gauges.

Analysts say that concerns about the ongoing earnings season amid prevalent caution about trade tariffs are keeping buyers at bay. 

Axis Bank shares were on track to register their worst single-day close in six months, a day after the private sector lender reported a weak set of financial results. 

The stock was the biggest drag on both main indices as well as sectoral gauge Nifty Bank, whose constituents are stocks of the country's 12 strongest lenders. 

Analysts say that higher credit costs and margin pressure unexpectedly dented the bank's profitability in Q1.

Axis Bank registered a 4 per cent decline in its net ofit to Rs 5,806 crore while its net interest income increased 0.8 per cent to Rs 13,560 crore. Its asset quality deteriorated. Gross non-performing assets as a percentage of total loans came in at 1.57 per cent from 1.28 per cent the previous quarter. on Axis Bank results

IT stocks saw a relatively calmer day on Friday thanks to Wipro's strong results post-market hours on Thursday. The IT major also gave a strong guidance for the next quarter, say analysts. 

Wipro registered a net profit of Rs 3,330 crore with revenue of Rs 22,135 crore for the quarter ended June 30, meeting analysts' expectations. According to Zee Business research, Wipro was estimated to report a net profit of Rs 3,076 crore with revenue of Rs 21,858 crore.

The Bengaluru-based IT firm said it expects its IT services revenue to be in the range of $2,560 million-$2,612 million during the quarter ending September 30, which translates to sequential growth ranging from -1.0 per cent to 1.0 per cent in constant currency terms. The company also declared a dividend of Rs 5 per share. on Wipro earnings 

Investors await more corporate earnings from India Inc for domestic cues.

Besides, foreign institutional investor outflows continue to dent sentiment on Dalal Street, say analysts. 

As of July 17, foreign institutional investors have net offloaded equities to the tune of Rs 17,330 crore for the month, while domestic institutional investors have made net purchases worth Rs 19,790 crore, according to provisional exchange data. 

Broader indices Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 traded 0.6 per cent and 0.7 per cent lower. 

Overall market breadth was extremely negative with an advance-decline ratio of 3:5, as 1,544 stocks rose while 2,407 declined on BSE. 

European shares began the day on a mildly positive note, mirroring the trend across other major Asian markets. The pan-European Stoxx 600 index was up 0.4 per cent at the last count. 

The UK's FTSE was up 0.2 per cent, while Germany's DAX and France's CAC were up 0.4 per cent and 0.6 per cent, respectively.

Dow Jones futures were up 0.2 per cent, suggesting a positive start on Wall Street on Friday. 

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