Sensex, Nifty Head For Another Big Fall; Infosys Q4 Eyed

The BSE benchmark Sensex fell over 200 points in the late morning deals on Friday on the back of selling pressure visible across the board. The 50-share Nifty slipped below its important psychological level of 8,350 led by losses in heavyweights such as HDFC, Larsen & Toubro, ICICI Bank and Infosys.

India's second biggest outsourcers will report its fourth quarter numbers later in the day. The stock traded 1 per cent lower at Rs 2,101 as analysts expect Infosys net profit to register at slight dip to Rs 3,174 crore in Q4.

The Sensex has shed over 1,500 points in the last seven trading sessions, largely on the back of a selloff by foreign institutional investors, who have sold cash shares worth Rs 5,000 crore since 15 April.

Foreign investor sentiment has taken a knock after the tax department raised demands of Rs 40,000 crore on overseas asset managers on income made in previous years. The news of weak monsoons has also hurt markets. Any deficiency in rains could hit rural incomes and demand. Weak corporate earnings have also dampened spirits.

Kishor Ostwal, CMD, CNI Research says, "The market in general is overbought... some brokers believe that the Nifty could be headed lower, perhaps towards 7,200. It seems that investors are booking profits ahead of derivative expiry."

As of 1:37 p.m., the Sensex was down 171 points at 27,564 and the Nifty slipped 60 points to 8,338.