IT, FMCG underperform as bank, realty take centre stage

TCS, HCL and Wipro open with losses

This year's best performing sectors--information technology and consumer goods--underperformed as stocks in the high beta, rate sensitive sectors, including banking, realty and auto surged.

Indian market on Thursday rallied nearly 3% after the US Fed, in a surprise move, decided against tapering its bond buying programme.

The rally was led by banking stocks, which make for almost a fourth of India's benchmark Nifty and Sensex indices. While IT stocks, including TCS, HCL and Wipro opened with losses.

Market experts said investors were taking out money from IT and FMCG stocks, which have rallied substantially this year to invest in beaten down banking and real estate stocks.

They added that IT has emerged as the new defensive sector, where investors find refuge in when the market enters risk-off mode. While, they underperform when the market is in the risk-on mode as seen today.

The BSE IT index, on opening was trading lower, while BSE Bankex gained more than 6%.

The benchmark Sensex gained 590 points, or 3%, to trade at 20,550.