Nifty down marginally in choppy trade; IT, health shares sink

Extending losses for a third straight session, the NSE benchmark Nifty fell marginally in a choppy trade today on worries about global economic growth outlook and selling in select shares with Infosys falling nearly 5 per cent on stock downgrade.
Strong buying in cyclical stocks, including financial, energy, auto, metal, FMCG and infra helped the 50-share index to recoup most of the early losses towards the tail-end.
However, software stocks witnessed huge unwinding after Citigroup downgraded IT bellwether Infosys' stock ahead of its Q2 results on Friday. Pharma counter also encountered heavy selling as investors pared positions after recent rally.

Retail investors remained cautious after the International Monetary Fund slashed its forecast for global economic growth this year for a third time. Near-term concerns about second- quarter earnings also weighed on sentiment.
The Nifty fluctuated between a high of 7,869.90 and a low of 7,815.75 before ending at 7,842.70, showing a modest fall of 9.70 points, or 0.12 per cent.
Infosys topped the selling list with the stock tanking by 4.73 per cent on heavy volume. Other IT players such as Wipro, TCS, Tech Mahindra, HCL Tech, too, fell sharply.

Other big index losers included Sun Pharma, Lupin, Dr Reddy's, Cipla, HDFC, Bharti Airtel, Kotak Bank and Sesa Sterlite.

Among the gainers were L&T, ICICI Bank, ONGC, ITC, Reliance, SBI, Tata Steel, IndusInd Bank, HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, Axis Bank and M&M.
Meanwhile, PSU oil marketing stocks like BPCL, HPCL and IOC attracted huge buying interest and surged 3 to 7 per cent following a sharp drop in brent crude prices in the international market.
Turnover in the cash segment jumped to Rs 14,551.94 crore from Rs 15,375.31 crore yesterday. A total of 7,339.46 lakh shares changed hands in 65,15,906 trades, while market capitalisation stood at Rs 90,41,047 crore.