BSE Sensex sheds 386 points, ends in red for weekend

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The government releases its budget for the fiscal year beginning in April on Feb. 29.

"Even after the budget, worries of U.S. slowdown will continue to haunt the bulls," India Infoline said in a report.

Foreign funds have been net sellers of more than $3 billion so far this year, after buying a record $17.4 billion of Indian equities in 2007.

However, some investors are hopeful that markets will pick up in the next week in anticipation of a new budget that will focus on spending geared toward India's 2009 general elections.

Elsewhere in the region, Karachi's 100-Share index edged up 0.06 percent to a record close of 14,980.66. Colombo's All-Share index fell 0.25 percent to 2,510.79.

On Thursday, the US market ended weak as Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index dipped by 143 and 27 points respectively after announcement of a weak US mid-Atlantic manufacturing data, the lowest level since the 2001 recession.

As a result, the spillover effect was seen in Asian markets on Friday. Barring Taiwan, most of the other indices in the region ended with losses by an average of 0.2-3.5 percent.

While Japan's Nikkei ended down 1.37 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell by 1.35 percent.

Singapore's Straits Times was down 0.2 percent and China's Shanghai Composite plunged by 3.47 percent.

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