Nifty heads for lowest close in two weeks; TCS results spark concerns

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The Nifty fell for a third consecutive session on Friday, heading towards its lowest close in two weeks as IT exporters declined on concerns over fourth-quarter earnings after bellwether Tata Consultancy Services' results failed to cheer investors.

Money managers worry slowdown seen by India's largest software services exporter could be an indicator of an industry-wide trend and marks a weak start to the January-March earnings season.

Investment bank UBS reduced its target for Nifty to 9,200 from 9,600 saying growth recovery is slower than expected and is playing out in quarterly corporate results.

"Jan-March earnings are already expected to be weak and TCS results have just made case for a reduction in market's estimates," said Aneesh Srivastava, chief investment officer at IDBI Federal Life Insurance.

 

The Nifty fell 0.7 percent, heading towards its lowest close since April 1, while the Sensex is down 0.4 percent.

Both the indexes are also heading for their first weekly fall in three with the BSE index down 1.1 percent and the NSE index declined 1.6 percent.

Software exporters led the declines. The NSE benchmark for technology stocks, CNX IT index <.CNXIT>, was down 2 percent, heading towards its biggest daily fall since March 26.

Infosys shares fell 0.8 percent, Wipro lost 2.5 percent, while Tech Mahindra dropped 2.6 percent and HCL Technologies fell 1.5 percent.

Among drug makers, Lupin slumped 5.5 percent, heading towards its biggest daily fall since August 2013, after rival Aurobindo Pharma got U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval for generic Suprax, which is Lupin's flagship anti-infective brand in the U.S.

(Reporting by Abhishek Vishnoi; Editing by Anand Basu)