By Rajhkumar K Shaaw Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Indian stocks fell, led by mobile phone operators as the government said some new licenses will be delayed. Software stocks declined after a report showed the U.S. services industry expanded less than forecast Bharti Airtel Ltd., India’s largest mobile-phone operator, fell after the Finance Secretary Ashok Chawla yesterday said the government won’t hold the auction of 3G licenses by March 31. Infosys Technologies Ltd., the second-largest software services provider, lost 0.5 percent. The U.S. accounts for 40 percent of India’s software sales. “The delay of the 3G auction will reduce the amount of money the government was expected to raise,” said Ambareesh Baliga, vice president of equities at Karvy Stock Broking Ltd. in Mumbai. “The order book of the IT companies is decent but the billing rates are not moving up.” The Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensitive Index, or Sensex, fell 116.73, or 0.7 percent, to 16,379.32 at 9:30 a.m. in Mumbai. The S&P CNX Nifty Index on the National Stock Exchange lost 0.6 percent to 4,904.90. The BSE 200 Index retreated 0.4 percent to 2,083.60. Bharti fell 0.5 percent to 307.4 rupees. On Jan. 19 Communications Minister Andimuthu Raja said the auction would be completed before April 1. Chawla did not say when the auction will be completed. The government had previously set Jan. 14 as the tentative deadline to start taking bids for the airwaves as per a schedule it announced in October. Reliance Communications Ltd., the nation’s second-largest mobile-phone operator, retreated 0.4 percent to 170.4 rupees. The stock was downgraded to “reduce” from “hold” at Emkay Global Financial Services Ltd. Infosys slipped 0.5 percent to 2,459.8 rupees. Wipro Ltd., the No. 3, fell 0.5 percent to 668.4 rupees. The ISM’s index of non-manufacturing businesses in the U.S., which make up almost 90 percent of the economy, rose to 50.5, lower than the median economist estimate of 51 in a Bloomberg survey. Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd., the largest copper and zinc producer, declined 1.9 percent to 765.7 rupees. The May- delivery copper contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange tumbled by as much as 4.4 percent, the steepest loss since Jan. 13. Overseas funds bought a net 109 million rupees ($2.35 million) of Indian stocks on Feb. 2, paring their outflows this year to 3.41 billion rupees, the Securities and Exchange Board of India said on its Web site. Foreign fund flows into India’s stock market rose to a record 834.2 billion rupees in 2009, beating the previous high set two years earlier in local currency terms, as the biggest rally in 18 years lured foreign investors. To contact the reporter on this story: Rajhkumar K Shaaw in Mumbai at rshaaw@bloomberg.net

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