Sensex falls 277 pts on Infy, Macquarie reports

The benchmark BSE Sensex on Monday fell 277 points, or 1.6% to 17,097, on heavy selling in IT stocks, particularly Infosys, and a Reuters report that Macquarie's Asia hedge fund has exited its short positions in Indian single stock futures in response to a controversial set of proposed tax rules that could lower investment returns.

The benchmark BSE Sensex on Monday fell 277 points, or 1.6% to 17,097, on heavy selling in IT stocks, particularly Infosys, and a Reuters report that Macquarie's Asia hedge fund has exited its short positions in Indian single stock futures in response to a controversial set of proposed tax rules that could lower investment returns.

HT Image

The fund will instead use a futures contract linked to Nifty on the Singapore Exchange to get its short exposure to India, a switch other funds may also make.

The $1.5-billion Macquarie fund, among just the 30 or so hedge funds with $1 billion or more in the region, had also cut India long exposure in March.

The Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also fell 90.3 points, or 1.7%, to 5,200.6.

Software giant Infosys dropped 3.9% to R2,312 on concerns that the company may face further heat amid reports that the US Department of Homeland Security was reviewing its employer eligibility after finding errors in identity verification forms of some of its staff. Infy gets 60% of its revenues from the US market.

PTI & Reuters