Sensex down 25 pts in choppy trade; Infosys plunges 4.70 pc

In choppy trade, the BSE Sensex today ended over 25 points lower with IT stocks led by Infosys recording losses, but oil & gas, PSU, metal and banking shares rose, avoiding a steeper fall in the benchmark index.

After opening in the negative zone at 26,229.67, the Sensex slipped further to touch the day's low of 26,150.09 on continued capital outflows and selling by retail investors, tracking weak cues from overseas markets.

Buying in select blue-chip stocks wiped off initial losses and barometer rose to day's high of 26,338.31. It finally settled at 26,246.79, 25.18 points, or 0.10 per cent lower than its previous close.

It had lost 358.54 points in the previous two sessions on negative domestic as well as global factors.

The 50-share NSE Nifty ended in negative terrain with a marginal fall of 9.70 points, or 0.12 per cent, at 7,842.70.

Nifty moved between 7,869.90 and 7,815.75 during the session on alternate bouts of buying and selling.

Brokers said sentiment is hit by persistent capital outflows, weak trends in global markets and the IMF's cut its growth forecast for global economy next year to 3.8 per cent.

Participants were cautious ahead of the earnings season beginning later this week with Infosys posting July-September quarter results, brokers said.

The provisional data released by the stock exchanges showed that foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 332.84 crore yesterday.

OF 30-share Sensex, Cipla, Dr Reddy, Hero MotoCorp, Sun Pharma, TCS and Wipro fell, while 19 others ended higher. Hind Unilever ended flat.

IT services major, Infosys plunged 4.70 per cent to Rs 3,650.20 amidst reports that global financial services major Citigroup has downgraded the stock to 'neutral' from 'buy', dragging the BSE IT sector index by 3.44 per cent.

Healthcare index fell 3.27 per cent and Teck index by 2.83 per cent.
Bucking the trend, Oil & Gas index rose 1.69 per cent as shares of RIL, ONGC and GAIL caught buyers' fancy. PSU index up 1.61 per cent.