Sensex closes over 220 points down, healthcare stocks plunge

Mumbai, April 17: A benchmark index of Indian equities markets, the 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex), closed Friday’s trade over 220 points down, as healthcare, banks and information technology (IT) stocks plunged. The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the tiol Stock Exchange (NSE) also closed the day’s trade in the red. It was down 100.70 points or 1.16 percent at 8,606 points. The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 28,682.97 points, closed the day’s trade at 28,442.10 points, down 223.94 points or 0.78 percent from the previous day’s close at 28,666.04 points. The Sensex touched a high of 28,696.19 points and a low of 28,403.76 points in the intra-day trade.

Alysts point at the subdued fourth quarterly results as the main trigger for the decline in the market. “TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) has not given a good start for the fourth quarter results,” said Vinod ir, head, fundamental research, Geojit BNP Paribas Fincial Services.

“Looking at the fourth-quarter numbers, consensus earnings for Sensex has been lowered to 3.5 percent year-on-year from 9 percent a month ago,” ir added.

On Thursday, TCS had posted a net profit of Rs.21,696 crore for the just-concluded fiscal 2014-15, registering a 13.5 percent year-on-year (YoY) growth. The IT major had also reported a net profit of Rs.5,906 crore for the fourth quarter (January-March) of the fiscal under review, registering 11.5 percent YoY and 8.5 percent sequential growth.

In Friday’s trade, heavy selling pressure was observed in healthcare, banking, IT, automobile, consumer durables, capital goods and technology, entertainment and media (TECK) sectors.

However, healthy buying was observed in metal stocks. The S&P BSE healthcare index plunged 544.68 points, followed by banking index which declined by 350.60 points, IT index receded by 228.20 points, automobile index decreased by 218.33 points and consumer durables index was lower by 196.49 points. The S&P BSE capital goods index fell by 129.94 points and TECK index was down 127.54 points.

However, the S&P BSE metal index was up 114.06 points. The major Sensex gainers on Friday were: Sesa Sterlite, up 3.18 percent at Rs.210.60; Tata Steel, up 2.53 percent at Rs.345.85; Hindalco Industries, up 1.86 percent at Rs.139.80; BHEL, up 1.18 percent at Rs.234.85; and NTPC, up 1.15 percent at Rs.158. The losers were: Sun Pharma, down 4.80 percent at Rs.1,037.30; Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), down 4.22 percent at Rs.2,476.20; Axis Bank, down 3.23 percent at Rs.534.15; Bharti Airtel, down 2.70 percent at Rs.406.05; and Wipro, down 2.46 percent at Rs.586.55. (IANS)

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