Mumbai: Falling for the third straight day, the benchmark BSE Sensex on Friday fell by over 223 points to close at 28,442.10, its weakest closing in nearly two weeks, dragged down by heavy selling mainly in IT stocks after TCS posted earning numbers below expectations.
Steep declines in TCS and Sun Pharma at 4.22 percent and 4.80 percent, respectively kept the index under pressure.
The 30-share Sensex has now lost over 602.34 points in the last three days after rising to 29,000-levels on Monday.
"Sentiments were downbeat from the beginning in response to disappointing earnings of TCS, and negativity further accelerated as the day progressed. It was reflected across the board as majority of sectoral indices ended in red," said Jayant Manglik, President-retail distribution of Religare Securities.
Sensex opened a shade higher at 28,682.97 and rose further to 28,696.19 on back of gains in RIL ahead of its Q4 earnings.
Widespread loses led by IT stocks dragged the 30-share gauge into the negative zone to touch day's low of 28,403.76.
It finally settled down by 223.94 points or 0.78 per cent at 28,442.10. The gauge had closed at 28,260.14 on April 1.
On weekly basis, the Sensex tumbled by 437.28 points or 1.51 percent and has broke its three-week winning run.
The 50-share NSE Nifty also dropped by 100.70 points or 1.16 percent to close the day at 8,606.00 after shuttling between 8,699.85 and 8,596.70 intraday.
"We usually see steep correction in individual stocks during the corrective phase and that reaction becomes stronger in the earning season," Manglik added.
The biggest losers on the Sensex included, Wipro, Infosys, Sun Pharma, Axis Bank, Bharti Airtel, GAIL, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp and HDFC Bank.
However, shares of Reliance Industries after rising to Rs 943.80 during the session on expectations of encouraging earnings, reacted to profit-bookings at the fag-end and closed a shade lower at Rs 926.85.
Tata Steel, Sesa Sterlite, Hindalco, BHEL, NTPC, Tata Power and Hindustan Unilever also rose on the day.
Globally, Asian markets ended in negative zone, while European markets were higher in their early trade.
Sectorwise, the BSE healthcare index suffered the most by plunging 3.05 percent, followed by teck at 2.02 percent, IT 2 percent, consumer durable by 1.80 percent, bankex 1.64 percent, auto 1.13 percent, realty 0.84 percent, capital goods 0.74 percent and oil & gas 0.36 percent.
Jignesh Chaudhary, Head of Research, Veracity Broking Services said: "Local equities ended weak as investors remained in profit-booking mode for the third day in a row. Software exporters led the declines and forced Nifty to post first weekly loss in three weeks."
Asian markets closed mixed with downward bias. Key indices in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan ended in the red while from China and South Korea closed in the green.
European stocks too were trading mixed, as Germany's DAX was quoting down by 0.29 percent and UK's FTSE was up by 0.38 percent, while France's CAC was almost stable.
Generally, the Indian markets saw across-the-spectrum selling as only sectoral BSE metal closed remarkably higher while 11 others ended in the red.
Of 30-share Sensex, 20 scrips closed with losses. Other prominent losers were Axis Bank 3.23 percent, Bharti Airtel 2.70 percent, Wipro 2.46 percent, Gail India 1.91 percent, Maruti Suzuki 1.12 percent and Bajaj Auto 1.01 percent.
However, SSLT rose by 3.18 percent, Tata Steel by 2.53 percent, Hindalco 1.86 percent and BHEL 1.18 percent.
Market breadth remained unfavourable as 1,665 stocks closed weak while 1,166 ended firm and 109 held stable. Total equity turnover rose to Rs 3,456.92 crore from Rs 3,085.13 crore yesterday.
