Mumbai: Equity benchmark indices tumbled in early trade on Monday after nine days of rally, dragged down by index major Infosys, which fell nearly by 12 percent after lower-than-expected revenue growth guidance for FY24. Weak trends in other IT counters also pulled the benchmark lower. The 30-share BSE Sensex tanked by 677.86 points to reach 59,753.14 in early trade. The broader NSE Nifty fell by 200 points to reach 17,628.
On Thursday, the Sensex had gone up marginally by 38.23 points or 0.06 percent to settle at 60,431. The Nifty climbed by 15.6 points or 0.09 percent to finish at 17,828. According to exchange data, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought equities worth Rs 221.85 crore on Thursday. Equity markets were closed on Friday on account of Ambedkar Jayanti.
Among the Sensex firms, Infosys emerged as the biggest laggard, falling nearly by 12 percent after the company reported lower-than-expected growth in the fourth quarter net profit and gave a weak 4-7 percent revenue growth guidance for FY24 amid the tightening of IT budgets by clients following a turmoil in the US banking sector.
Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HDFC and HDFC Bank were the other laggards. Power Grid, IndusInd Bank, UltraTech Cement, Nestle, Titan and Hindustan Unilever were among the winners.
In Asian markets, Seoul and Japan were trading lower, while Shanghai and Hong Kong quoted in the green. The US markets had ended lower on Friday. "Denting sentiments are TCS and Infosys' Q4 results which missed street estimates. Investors would also focus on March inflation based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI)," Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said.
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