Sensex slips into red, IT stocks fall

Infosys was the worst performer in the Sensex pack

Benchmark Sensex succumbed to fag-end profit booking to close lower at 32,274 today as investors dialled down on fresh bets due to absence of fresh triggers and muted earnings by some corporates.

Software exporters witnessed selling pressure as weakness in the dollar against the rupee, which traded at two-year highs, stoked fears of a revenue hit, brokers said. Infosys was the worst performer in the Sensex pack, plunging 1.75%, while TCS and Wipro also closed with losses.

The 30-share BSE Sensex commenced higher at 32,377.80 points and advanced to touch the day's high of 32,396.14 in early trade on foreign fund inflows and positive global cues. However, it gave up the gains towards the end of the session to finish at 32,273.67, a loss of 51.74 points, or 0.16%. It had gained 87.53 points in the previous session. The 50-share NSE Nifty settled down by 9 points, or 0.09%, at 10,057.40. Intra-day, it hovered between 10,088.10 and 10,046.35. The broader markets outperformed the key indices. The BSE mid-cap index hit a lifetime of 15,600.27, up 1.06%, while the small-cap index gained 1.15% to 16,109.21. "Market went into consolidation as high valuation and lack of fresh triggers influenced investors to stay on the sidelines.

"Positive sentiment and high liquidity will continue to support the market while any major disparity between earnings and current valuation could lead to consolidation," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services. Sentiment remained upbeat in early trade on positive Asian cues and a higher opening in the European shares after strong US jobs numbers. However, subdued June quarter earnings by Britannia, Eveready and a few other companies made investors nervous. Index laggards included NTPC, Dr Reddy's, M&M, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, Lupin, Cipla, Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints, Axis Bank, Hero MotoCorp, HDFC Ltd, Reliance Industries, ITC, ONGC and Sun Pharma, falling up to 1.64%. Tata Steel was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising 4.26%, ahead of its earnings. Other gainers were SBI, Adani Ports, ICICI Bank, Coal India, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto, L&T and Power Grid. Meanwhile, domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1,017.10 crore on Friday, while foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold stocks to the tune of Rs 853.80 crore, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, IT suffered the most by falling 0.94%, followed by teck 0.83%. Gainers included oil & gas, PSU, realty, metal, consumer durables, FMCG, bank and capital goods.

Globally, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.52% higher, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.46%. China's Shanghai Composite also moved up by 0.53%. European markets, including France's Paris CAC 40 and Frankfurt's DAX 30, were marginally up in their early deals. London's FTSE up 0.19%.

With agency inputs