India's key stock market index ends over 300 points down (Roundup)

A benchmark index for Indian equities, the 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange, closed over 300 points or 1.00 percent down on Monday due to some poor corporate results and indications of a sooner-than-anticipated hike in US interest rates.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also closed the day's trade in the red. It was down 89 points or 1.05 percent at 8,370.25 points.

The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 27,893.25 points, closed the day's trade at 27,643.88 points (at 3.45 p.m.), down 313.62 points or 1.12 percent from the previous day's close at 27,957.50 points.The key index had touched a high of 27,903.29 points and a low of 27,614.32 points in the intra-day trade.

The fall was broad-based among the blue chips, as 25 out of 30 shares that go into the Sensex basket ended in the red.

The top gainer was ONGC, up 2.12 percent at Rs.329.30, while the losers were led by Vedanta, down 3.59 percent at Rs.200, data with the Mumbai bourse showed.

The fall was more magnified for the Sensex scrips, as the BSE 100 index was down by a relatively smaller 0.89 percent, BSE 200 by 0.74 percent, mid-cap by a mere 0.08 percent and small-cap by 0.22 percent.

The main concern for the markets was the uneven corporate results for the fourth quarter for this fiscal, as also some remarks by the US Fed that the rate hike could come earlier than what the markets had discounted for, analysts said.

Otherwise, the Asian markets ended on a higher note. China led the gainers, with the Shanghai Composite up 3.4 percent, even as the Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.7 percent, while Japan's Nikkei was up 0.75 percent.