Market sell-off: Investors hide in defensives as Infosys disappoints

NEW DELHI: Markets came under intense selling pressure after IT major Infosys Ltd dented expectation by giving FY14 dollar guidance of 6-10%, lower than Street estimates.

The S&P BSE Sensex plunged over 300 points in intraday trade, led by losses in IT, realty, capital goods and auto stocks.

However, what bucked the trend were defensive names such as FMCG and pharma stocks. The S&P BSE FMCG Index managed to gain over 2 per cent while selected pharma companies rose in a weak market.

The S&P BSE IT was the biggest laggard, down 10 per cent weighed down by losses in Infosys, which was down 18 per cent to trade at Rs 2378, Wipro plunged 4.6 per cent to Rs 383 and TCS was trading 1.8 per cent lower at Rs 1508 at 12:30 pm.

However, under the defensive space, ITC was trading 3.4 per cent higher followed by HUL which was up 1.5 per cent and Jubilant FoodWorks gained 1.3 per cent.

“Pharma stocks are clearly outperforming markets and CNX Pharma index is clearly one which has given a breakout,” Mitesh Thacker of miteshthacker.com said in an interview with ET Now.

“For the time being, it is good to look at possibly defensives on the long side,” he added.

CNX Pharma index rose nearly 1 per cent to hit 52-week high of 6284.75 in intraday trade today. Tracking the momentum, Lupin surged over 2 per cent to hit its 52-week high of Rs 662.85 on the NSE.

Other pharma stocks such as Cipla, which was trading 1 per cent higher at Rs 408.50, Sun Pharma was up 0.2 per cent to Rs 873.85 and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories rose 0.4 per cent to Rs 1895 as of 12:30 pm.