Sensex tumbles 238 points, led by Infosys

Disappointing growth outlook by IT bellwether Infosys for this fiscal amid uncertain global economic environment pulled down the BSE Sensex on Friday by 238 points to 2-week low of 17,094.51. Investors sold bluechips amid weak European markets, and concerns over India’s slowing industrial growth. Industrial growth slipped to 4.1 per cent in February. The BSE 30-scrip benchmark Sensex plunged 238.11 points, or 1.37 per cent, to 17,094.51 as the index heavyweight Infosys suffered hefty losses. Initially, the index rose to 17,398.22. NSE 50-scrip index Nifty fell 69.40 point, or 1.32 per cent, to 5,207.45, after touching a high of 5,306.75. Infosys tumbled 12.61 per cent to Rs 2,403.30 following weak revenue guidance for 2012-13, while announcing the fourth quarter earnings result for the last fiscal. It pulled down the IT sector index, which suffered the most by losing 8.76 per cent to 5,404.27, as well as the overall market. Meanwhile, Securities Exchnage Board of India (SEBI) Chairman U K Sinha inaugurated a seminar on ‘Investor Outlook 2012’ at Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday. Chairperson of Capital Market Committee IMC  Deena Mehta, President of IMC Bhavna Doshi and Chairman of Hiranandani Construction Niranjan Hiranandani participated at the function. “Disappointing Infosys FY’13 guidance and lower operating margins in Q4 created a negative sentiment in the market. Most of the Tech stocks were hammered drastically after Infosys announced the fourth quarter results,” said Rikesh Parikh, VP Equities at Motilal Oswal Securities. Milan Bavishi, Head Research, Inventure Growth & Securities said it was a day dominated by IT stocks after Infosys forecast 8-10 per cent growth for 2012-13, as against software services industry body Nasscom?s estimate of 11-14 per cent. Meanwhile, in dollar terms, the company was unable to meet even the lower end of its revenue guidance of $1,806 million-1,810 million for Q4 FY’12, as revenues stood at $1,771 million. Meanwhile, brokers said drastic downward revision of industrial growth figures for January has disappointed investors. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) on Thursday revised the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) for January from 6.8 per cent to 1.14 per cent because of wrong calculation of sugar production during the month.