Markets remain weak, Infosys slumps 20%

Benchmark indices continue to remain weak amid sharp sell off in Infosys shares after the IT major reported disappointing Q4 numbers and lower-than-expected guidance for FY14.

Meanwhile, Industrial production was at 0.6% in February from a year earlier, government data showed on Friday. Manufacturing, which constitutes about 76% of industrial production, grew 2.2% from a year earlier, the federal statistics office said.

India's annual consumer price inflation slowed to 10.39% in March from the previous month, government data showed on Friday.

By 1355 hrs, Sensex plunged by 296 points at 18,246, and the Nifty down 68 points or 1.22% at 5,525 levels.

On the global front, Asian shares were trading mixed with Nikkei recovering from its early lows. The Nikkei had rallied in the past few sessions after the Bank of Japan decided to infuse $1.4 trillion to boost the economy. The Nikkei was down 0.6% and Shanghai Composite slipped 0.2% while Hang Seng and Straits Times were trading with marginal gains.

Back home, the rupee trimmed its initial gains against the American currency but was still quoted up by two paise to 54.49 per dollar on mild selling of dollars by banks and exporters on the back of lower dollar overseas.

On the sectoral front, BSE IT index has slumped by nearly 11% followed by counters like TECk, Realty, Capital Goods, Auto, Consumer Durables and Metal, all slumping between 0.2-8%. However, BSE FMCG and Bankex indices index have gained between 1-2%.

Shares of information technology (IT) companies are trading lower 2-20% after Infosys said its consolidated revenues are expected to grow between 6-10%, a much below than Nasscom’s 12-14% industry growth expectations for the current fiscal 2013-14 (FY13-14). Infosys slumped 20%, Wipro slipped 5% and TCS was down 2%.

According to Pratik Gandhi, IT analyst at IDBI Capital, “The results were disappointing and certainly not what we were expecting. The biggest factor was Infosys guidance, we were expecting US$ revenue growth guidance to 12% for FY14 while it turned out to be 6-10%.”

Auto majors such as Maruti Suzuki, M&M and Tata Motors which had gained recently witnessed profit taking are down over 1% each.

Other notable losers include Sterlite, L&T, Coal India, JSPL, GAIL, ICICI Bank and Bharti Airtel.

However, defensive shares bucked the weak trend with FMCG shares among the top gainers.

ITC is trading higher by around 3% at Rs 293 after falling 7.3% in past six trading days on back of heavy volumes. HUL is up by nearly 2%.

The market breadth in BSE remains weak with 1,259 shares declining and 857 shares advancing.