Markets End in Red; IIP Data and Infosys Results Weighs Heavy

The Indian markets ended the day deep in red on continued weakness in IT stocks. The Sensex dropped to a low of 18,326 and after an attempt at recovery, finally ended with a loss of 310 points at 18,411. The Nifty ended down 90 points at 5,526. The IT index saw tremendous selling pressure after IT major Infosys came out with its numbers before market opening today. The index dropped nearly 3% to 5,925. IT bellwether Infosys tumbled 4.3% to Rs 2,2,794 after reporting a 5.3% quarter-on-quarter decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,722 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2011 under IFRS. Meanwhile, industrial growth fell to 5.6% in May this year from 8.5% in the same month last year, mainly due to the poor performance of the manufacturing and mining sectors. According to data released here, industrial growth in April-May this year averaged 5.7%, compared to 10.8% in the same period last year. Realty, auto and metal stocks were also in red. The indices slipped around 2% each today. Broader markets outperformed and ended down 1% each. BSE market breadth was negative with 63% stocks declining as against 32% on the advancing side.