Sensex tumbles 201 points on profit-booking

The much-awaited Infosys results turned out to be a dampener for markets as the benchmark Sensex nosedived over 200 points on Friday on hectic selling across IT, auto, bankex, power and consumer goods counters.

The 30-share Sensex closed the day down by 200.88 points at 16,642.66.

The National Stock Exchange index, Nifty, also lost 57.05 points at 4,945.20.

Marketmen said fears on interest rates going up mainly pulled down banking stocks while a robust rupee and Infosys lowering guidance for the whole year weighed against the IT stocks.

Auto index was the biggest casualty with heavyweight Tata Motors taking a hit of about 7 per cent after the company said it has raised $750 million through issue of fresh shares in the international market and convertible notes, which will be utilised mainly for debt repayment of JLR acquisition.

A weakening trend in European markets also influenced trading sentiment to some extent.

Markets also discarded finance minister Pranab Mukherjee's promise that he would examine in detail seven critical proposals of the direct taxes code, including taxation of savings schemes and imposition of Minimum Alternate Tax on gross assets.

In the 30-BSE index related stocks, four gained and 26 ended with losses.

The auto sector index was the worst performer losing 1.72 per cent to 6,450.01. Tata Motors took the maximum beating plunging by 6.66 per cent to Rs 548.30. Mahindra and Mahindra declined by 2.39 per cent to Rs 890.20.

Infosys dropped by 1.49 per cent on worries about rising rupee which hovered at a more than one-year high. Traders fear that rising rupee would hit profits of the IT companies.

Over 50 per cent income of the software exporting companies comes from the US markets.

The IT sector index fell by 1.43 per cent to 4,276.81 followed by power index by 1.43 per cent to 3,082.39.

Capital goods index by 1.42 per cent to 13,687.81, health care index by 1.09 per cent to 4,399.66, metal index by 1.09 per cent to 14,511.67 and realty sector by 0.78 per cent to 4,389.93.

However, consumer durable index rose marginally by 0.35 per cent to 3,670.87.

Image: The Bombay Stock Exchange