Sensex slumps to 1-week low; IT stocks fall before TCS results

Falling for the second straight session, the benchmark BSE Sensex on Thursday fell over 133 points to close at a one-week low of 28,666.04 with IT shares coming under selling pressure on caution ahead of TCS results.

Falling for the second straight session, the benchmark BSE Sensex on Thursday fell over 133 points to close at a one-week low of 28,666.04 with IT shares coming under selling pressure on caution ahead of TCS results.

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The 30-share index opened higher at 28,876.23 and stayed in the positive zone briefly on sustained foreign capital inflows. On emergence of profit-booking in bluechips, it slipped into the red to touch day's low of 28,497.70 before settling 133.65 points down or 0.46 per cent at 28,666.04.

This is gauge's lowest closing since April 7 and has now lost 378.40 points in straight two sessions.

The 50-issue NSE Nifty also dropped by 43.50 points or 0.50 per cent to end at 8,706.70 after shuttling between 8,760 and 8,645.65 intra-day.

Stocks of all the three top IT companies ended as major losers on the day. Infosys lost 1 per cent to close at Rs 2,191.10, Wipro was down 0.82 per cent at Rs 601.60, while TCS closed lower at Rs 2,585.20 down by 1.50 per cent.

India's largest IT company TCS was set to announce its March quarter earnings after market hours Thursday.

Other losers at the Sensex included Hero MotoCorp at 3.76 per cent, Sun Pharma at 2.60 per cent, Cipla 2.18, L&T 2 per cent, Dr Reddy's 1.92 per cent, Sesa Sterlite 1.50 and ITC 1.21 per cent.

Shares of state-run oil marketing companies also saw selling pressure following a cut in petrol and diesel prices. Indian Oil fell by 2.32 per cent, HPCL by 0.37 per cent and BPCL by 0.37 per cent.

On 30-share Sensex, 19 stocks closed with losses.

Sectorwise, the rate-sensitive realty index suffered the most by losing 2.30 per cent followed by capital goods at 1.56 per cent.

Selling was also spread in the broader markets with the BSE smallcap and midcap indices falling up to 0.91 per cent.

Meanwhile, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 108 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.