BackMarkets drop; Wipro falls 4% on resignations
Markets drop; Wipro falls 4% on resignations
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Mumbai: Shares were trading down 0.3% in line with weak Asian peers, while Wipro fell more than 4% after the outsourcer surprised markets with the resignations of key officials.
Financial stocks were under pressure ahead of quarterly monetary policy review on Tuesday, when the central bank is widely expected to raise key interest rates by a quarter point.
Wipro, the No. 3 outsourcer, said before trading started the joint CEOs of its main information technology business would leave the company, after reporting profit growth rates which lagged bigger rivals.
“This is definitely a surprise for Wipro ... resignations by such key people could lead to losing out on some orders as the contacts move away with the employees," said R.K. Gupta, managing director of Taurus Mutual Fund, which holds Wipro stocks.
By 11:06am, the 30-share BSE index was trading down 0.31% at 18,986.56, with 18 of its components declining.
Wipro was down 3.6% after falling as much as 4.2%, while bigger rivals Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Technologies shed 0.3% and nearly 1% respectively.
Leading private-sector lenders ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank fell 1.2% and 0.4% respectively.
Foreign funds have dumped Indian equities worth $717 million this month, weighed down by inflation concerns and as optimism over the US economy diverted some flows.
State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender, edged 0.2% higher ahead of its quarterly earnings on Saturday.
In the broader market, gainers outnumbered losers in the ratio of 1.6:1 on volume of 95 million shares.
The 50-share NSE index was down 0.3% at 5,694.85.
STOCKS
Energy giant Reliance Industries was up 1.3% at ₹ 981.95 ahead of its quarterly earnings, expected after market hours on Friday. A Reuters poll showed the company may report a 31.1% rise in quarterly profit.
Cigarette-to-hotel business ITC was down 0.8%, while capital goods firm Bharat Heavy Electricals rose nearly 1% ahead of their quarterly results.
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