The benchmark indices fell today despite robust industrial production data for November and Infosys’ better-than-expected results. Fears that the central bank will tighten monetary policy at its January 29 meeting dented the sentiment on the Street.
The Sensex closed at 17,422, lower by 104 points, and the Nifty closed at 5,210, down 39 points. Mid-cap and small-cap indices fell more than 1 per cent.
The industrial output in November grew at its fastest in two years. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) rose 11.7 per cent in November as against 2.5 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year, fuelled by demand for manufactured goods.
The growth in industrial output in the finamcial year would be higher than the 2.6 per cent in 2008-09, the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, said.
Infosys surpassed expectations and reported a 3.6 per cent fall in net profit to Rs 1,582 crore and a reduction of nearly 1 per cent in income to Rs 5,741 crore for the third quarter ended December 31, 2008. This was better than what the markets were expecting.
The fear of rise in interest rates took a toll on rate-sensitive sectors such as real estate and banking. DLF was the top loser on the BSE and fell nearly 4 per cent to Rs 383. ICICI Bank fell 3.1 per cent to Rs 841 and SBI fell 2.87 per cent to Rs 2,203.
Tata Steel fell 3.4 per cent to Rs 626. Bharti Airtel lost 2 per cent after announcing plans to acquire 70 per cent in Bangladesh-based Warid Telecom for $300 million.
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India’s largest private sector company by market capitalisation, Reliance Industries, ended flat at Rs 1,083. The stock had lost 1.85 per cent on Monday after the company raised $763 million through a block sale of 33 million shares.
Information technology (IT) stocks had a field day. Infosys rose nearly 4 per cent to Rs 2,587. The positive sentiment rubbed onto the stocks of other software companies. Wipro emerged as the leading gainer on the Sensex, strengthening 4.8 per cent to Rs 694, and TCS closed 4.8 per cent up at Rs 749.
Mid-cap IT stocks were not behind. HCL Technologies, MphasiS and Oracle rallied around 2 per cent.
The market breadth was weak. Out of 2,990 stocks traded on the BSE, there were 1,080 advances and 1,848 declines.
Dinesh Thakkar, chief executive officer, Angel Broking, said, “The markets have discounted next year’s earnings and are fairly priced at current levels. But they are headed higher in the long run.”