Sensex Dives Over 500 Points, Nifty Gives Up 14,500; IT Stocks End Weak

The domestic stock markets ended the last trading session deeply in the red as bears gained the upper hand after a runaway rally in the past 2 week and two consecutive days of consolidation. Weakness across the European bourses and mixed trends from Asia seemingly exacerbated the fall back home. The BSE Sensex ended the last trading day of the week at 49,034.67, weaker by 549.49 points or 1.11 per cent and NSE Nifty ended at 14,433.70, down 161.90 points or 1.11 per cent. The broader markets also witnessed selling pressure; the BSE Midcap index ended down 1.25 per cent at 18,904.14 and BSE Smallcap index shed 1.06 per cent at 18,682.12.

There was red across the board in Europe, with the DAX, CAC and FTSE opening lower by around half a per cent each. Asian markets also had a mixed day; the Kospi, Nikkei, SET and Jakarta lost up to 2 per cent each, while the Hang Seng, Straits Times and Shanghai indices traded in the green.

On the stock-specific front, information technology stocks saw profit-booking for the second consecutive day, post the Infosys numbers. Tech Mahindra plunged by 4.3 per cent to Rs 1,007.30 to top the loser's charts on the BSE. HCL Tech declined by 3.6 per cent to Rs 989.80 although the company's third quarter profit surged nearly 27 per cent to Rs 3,982 crore. Infosys, Wipro and TCS also ended lower by 0.5 per cent to 3.8 per cent each. GAIL, ONGC, Hindalco and BPCL were the other significant losers among BSE stocks.

On the other hand, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel and ITC gained up to 4 per cent each on the BSE. In fact, Tata Motors has now rallied for 11 straight days to hit 28-month high on the BSE Sensex.

The BSE market breadth was weak. Out of 3,163 stocks traded on the BSE, there were  1088 advancing stocks as against 1936 declines.