Indian stock markets ended with losses Thursday as investors preferred to book profits ahead of the fourth quarter earnings season. The S&P BSE Sensex fell to a three-week low and closed at 24,685, down 215 points, or 0.86 percent, while the NSE Nifty ended 68 points lower at 7,546.
IT software services exporter Infosys plunged more than 3 percent during the day in response to the company's disclosure on the voting pattern on the resolution extending MD & CEO Vishal Sikka's tenure.
Regulatory filing by the Bengaluru-based company revealed that 23.57 percent of promoter votes were cast in favour of the resolution to reappoint Sikka, essentially a two-year extension of tenure till 2021.
The stock trimmed losses later and closed at Rs. 1,181.65, down 1.62 percent.
The biggest Sensex loser was Adani Ports, followed by India's biggest car maker Maruti Suzuki and mortgage lender HDFC. The housing loan company fell after it reported an one-time provision of Rs 450 crore on standard assets for the quarter ended March 2016.
BHEL was the biggest Sensex gainer on news that the state-owned power equipment maker's order inflows rose 41.9 percent to Rs. 43,727 crore in 2015-16 from Rs 30,814 crore in the preceding financial year.
Other Sensex gainers included public sector miner Coal India, pharma company Dr Reddy's Labs and oil and gas exploration company ONGC.
Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers of Indian equities worth Rs. 294.72 crore, according to the provisional data released by the National Stock Exchange.
TCS, Infosys and Wipro will be declaring their fourth quarter results on April 18, April 15 and April 20, respectively.
TCS had given a full-year revenue growth guidance of 12.8-13.2 percent for the financial year 2015-16 over the previous financial year. Its consolidated revenues for 2014-15 stood at Rs. 53,519 crore and net profit at Rs. 12,372 crore. The revenues had grown 7.1 percent in constant currency terms to $8,711 million and 5.6 percent, YoY.
Wipro had given an IT revenue guidance of $1,875 to $1,912 million for the fourth quarter, up two to four percent from its Q3 IT revenues.
