Sensex down; tech stocks fall ahead of TCS earnings

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The BSE Sensex and Nifty were lower for the second straight session on Thursday, led by software services companies such as Tata Consultancy Services ahead of its quarterly earnings later in the day.

The dollar's biggest quarterly rise against other major currencies since 2008 has undermined sales of India's IT services firms in non-U.S. markets, including Europe, in what was already a seasonally slow period.

However, India's annual wholesale prices declined at their fastest pace in at least nine years in March on cooling oil and manufacturing costs, reflecting trends that could give the central bank room to make further interest rate cuts.

 

Investors will take a close look at Jan-March earnings, which will be the biggest immediate trigger for the markets, traders said.

"We should see some sort of correction and I think this is a healthy correction. This will create some renewed buying interest, especially when some of the long-only funds are looking at India as a more favourable investment destination. The undercurrent is positive," said Deven Choksey, managing director, KR Choksey Securities.

The BSE Sensex is down 0.7 percent while the broader Nifty fell 0.95 percent.

Information Technology stocks led the decline with the IT index of the NSE trading 1.6 percent lower ahead of TCS's quarterly earnings. TCS eased 1.2 percent, Infosys is trading 2.3 percent lower while Wipro was down 2.4 percent.

Among other stocks, Lupin fell 3.5 percent after rival Aurobindo Pharma got U.S. FDA approval for generic Suprax, which is Lupin's flagship anti-infective brand in the U.S.

However, Eicher Motors gained 0.9 percent after the Reserve Bank of India allowed overseas investors to invest up to 49 percent in the company.

(Reporting by Indulal PM; Editing by Sunil Nair)