BSE Sensex falls more than 200 points on profit-taking

Shares of Wipro fell 4.5 per cent after the company’s July-September revenue in dollar terms grew 2.7 per cent sequentially,lagging other major IT services exporters,dealers say.

Other IT stocks also dropped on profit-taking: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) was down 1.88 per cent,while Infosys was lower 1.2 per cent and HCL Technologies fell 1.3 per cent.

The NSE index for IT shares is up 45.4 per cent in 2013 compared with the Nifty’s returns of 4.6 per cent,as of Tuesday’s close.

Among blue-chip shares,Tata Motors Ltd fell 2.76 per cent after marking its record high last week.

In late morning trade,the BSE Sensex failed to maintain initial gains and was quoted lower by 68 points to 20,796.70 due to fresh selling pressure mainly in IT,Tech,Auto,Realty and Capital Goods counters despite firm global trend.

The BSE Sensex resumed higher at 20,875.31 and firmed up further to 20,922.32 on initial strong buying on the back of higher global cues coupled with persistent foreign capital inflows.

However,it declined afterwards to 20,771.92 before quoting at 20,796.70 (1030hrs),showing a loss of 93.05 points from its last close.

The NSE Nifty also moved down by 30.55 points to 6,172.25 (1130hrs).

Major losers were Wipro (5.16 pct),HDFC Bank (1.35 pct),Tata Motors (1.24 pct),Infosys (1.14 pct) and Dr Reddys Laboratories (1.12 pct).

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 794.90 crore yesterday as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.

Asian stock markets were trading mostly higher after disappointing US jobs data firmly pushed expectations for the tapering of Federal Reserve stimulus into next year.

Key benchmark indices in Hong Kong,Indonesia,Singapore and Japan rose by 0.14 per cent to one per cent while indices in China,South Korea and Taiwan fell by 0.31 per cent to 1.23 per cent.