Sensex tumbles 201 points on profit-booking

07/02/2008 MUMBAI: A gloomy look on the Bombay Stock Exchange as the Fears of recession in US, fuelled further by reports of contraction in services sector and Fed Reserve's comments yesterday, sent the domestic stock markets on a tailspin with the benchmark Sensex tumbling by over 626 points today, the biggest loss in the last two weeks. Photo: Paul Noronha NICAID:110096543

The much-awaited Infosys results turned out to be a dampener for markets as the benchmark Sensex nosedived over 200 points on hectic selling across IT, auto, bank, power and consumer goods counters.

The 30-share Sensex closed the day down by 200.88 points at 16,642.66.

The National Stock Exchange index, Nifty, also lost 57.05 points at 4,945.20.

Marketmen said fears on interest rates going up mainly pulled down banking stocks while a robust rupee and Infosys lowering guidance for the whole year weighed against the IT stocks after.

Auto index was the biggest casualty with heavyweight Tata Motors taking a hit of about 7 per cent after the company said it has raised $750 million through issue of fresh shares in the international market and convertible notes, which will be utilised mainly for debt repayment of JLR acquisition.

A weakening trend in European markets also influenced trading sentiment to some extent.

Markets also discarded Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s promise that he would examine in detail seven critical proposals of the Direct Taxes Code, including taxation of savings schemes and imposition of Minimum Alternate Tax on gross assets.