Sensex down 200 pts, Nifty below 22k; IT stocks sink

Equity benchmark indices opened in red on Friday tracking weakness in Asian markets. The BSE Sensex was down 200 points to 72,431, and the NSE Nifty50 lost 54 points to 21,957.

The broader markets opened flat. The BSE MidCap was trading range bound, while the SmallCap index was up 0.33 per cent.

Shares of IT companies were among the top in Friday’searly trade with HCL Tech, Mphasis, Persistent Systems down by 4 per cent each, whereas Wipro, Coforge, Infosys, and LTTS also dipped over 3 per cent each. The Nifty IT index, however, was down 3.09 per cent as against 0.54 per cent dip in Nifty50.

The top gainers on BSE included Allcargo logistics, Metrobrand, Saphire, Prestige and Sterling and Wilson Renewable Energy gaining between 4 per cent to over 7 per cent.