REUTERS - Indian shares fell on Friday, underperforming Asian peers, as blue chip Infosys Ltd fell as much as 10.6 percent after the software services exporter posted disappointing results and slashed revenue forecasts.
Bigger rival Tata Consultancy Services also fell, even as it reported a more upbeat quarterly profit than Infosys, as investors were concerned about its outlook, given the potential impact from the British vote to exit the European Union.
But for the week, the Nifty was headed for a 2.4 percent gain after hitting a more-than-11-month high on Thursday. Sentiment has been boosted as monsoon rains have been above average and on hopes parliament will pass a revamped goods and services tax in its session starting on Monday.
"We are expecting a slowdown in IT companies, caused by the impact of Brexit," said Abhishek Jain, head of research, KR Choksey Securities.
Post-Brexit, IT vendors have been facing issues relating to order pricing, Jain said, adding that the sector would not remain in the "limelight" for another 6-7 months.
Nifty was 0.56 percent lower.
Sensex declined 0.61 percent after touching its highest since Aug. 19 on Thursday. For the week, it was up 2.3 percent.
Infosys, India's second largest IT services exporter, was down 8.9 percent after earlier slumping to its lowest in more than six months, dragging the Nifty IT Index down by 4 percent.
Meanwhile, TCS fell 3.1 percent.
Adding to the losses, power company NTPC Ltd eased 1.7 percent, with traders attributing the fall to the sale of shares by the company's employees after a lock-in period from a recent stake sale sold by the government.
Meanwhile, investors booked profits on some recent outperformers like State Bank of India and Kotak Mahindra Bank, after a rally early this week.
(Reporting by Samantha Kareen Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Sunil Nair)
