Sensex falls for 2nd day; closes at 19,468

Mumbai: The BSE benchmark Sensex on Friday closed 29 points down on selling by funds mainly in oil & gas and IT sector stocks amid dismal earnings by some bluechip companies.

Falling for the second straight day, the index closed 29.03 points lower, or 0.15 percent, to 19,468.15, led by Reliance Industries, Infosys and Dr Reddy.

The index had lost 111 points in the previous session.

Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty fell by 9.55 points, or 0.16 percent, to 5,887.40.

Brokers said the Sensex limping down and hovered around year's lowest levels as funds booked profits on steady inflow of dismal quarter earnings by leading companies.

They said a weak Asian trend and lower opening in Europe before the outcome of finance minister of G-20 meeting to sort out a solution to revive slowing economic growth also dampened the sentiments here.

Dr Reddy Lab, DLF Ltd and Bajaj Auto declined after they posted third-quarter earnings below market expectations. Dr Reddy lost 3.55 percent to Rs 1,811.50, DLF by 2.03 percent to Rs 248.80, Maruti Suzuki by 0.81 percent to Rs 1,472.75 and Bajaj Auto by 1.41 percent to Rs 1,974.

The two most heavy on the benchmark with their 16 percent weightage Reliance Industries and Infosys dropped by 1.20 percent to Rs 844.85 and by 0.99 percent to Rs 2,785.20, respectively.

Sentiment also dampened ever since the Central Statistics Office reduced the economic growth outlook to lowest in a decade at 5 percent from and reports of fall in industrial production in December, they added.

The oil and gas sector index fell the most by 0.83 percent to 8,928.35 followed by IT index by 0.58 percent to 6,477.68. Healthcare index lost 0.30 percent to 7,899.28 and Teck index by 0.27 percent to 3,778.69.

PTI