Sensex closes 100 points down; bank, capital goods plunge

A benchmark index of Indian equities market closed 102 points down Tuesday amid weakness in global markets.

There was heavy selling pressure in the interest-sensitive stocks like bank, capital goods, consumer durables, public sector undertakings (PSUs) and oil and gas stocks. However, healthy buying was seen in sectors like metal, information technology (IT), technology, entertainment and media (TECk) scrips.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 19,329.17 points, closed the day's trade at 19,223.28 points in the pre-noon session, down 102.59 points or 0.53 percent from its previous day's close at 19,325.87 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 19,383.61 points and a low of 19,191.37 points in intra-day trade.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) ended 0.62 percent or 36.45 points down at 5,813.60 points.

The S&P BSE bank index plunged 163.86 points, while capital goods index decreased by 80.72 points, consumer durables index moved down by 72.43 points, PSU index closed lower by 57.43 points and oil and gas index inched down by 49.35 points. However, the metal index was up 59.33 points and IT index was higher by 34.29 points and TECk index closed the day's trade up 24.11 points.

The prominent Sensex gainers were: Tata Steel, up 2.89 percent at Rs.284.70; Bajaj Auto, up 1.81 percent at Rs.1,840; Tata Power, up 1.15 percent at Rs.83.25; Infosys, up 1.08 percent at Rs.2,447.60; and Hero MotoCorp, up 1.02 percent at Rs.1,640.30.

The main losers were: NTPC, down 2.20 percent at Rs.147; Bharti Airtel, down 1.67 percent at Rs.291.45; Gail India, down 1.59 percent at Rs.294.35, HDFC Bank, down 1.48 percent at Rs.657.55; and ONGC, down 1.47 percent at Rs.307.95.

Among other Asian markets, Japanese Nikkei was down by 0.20 percent and Chinese Hang Seng dipped by 0.02 percent but the Shanghai Composite Index ended up 0.14 percent.

The European markets saw a choppy session. While London's FTSE 100 was trading up by 0.71 percent, Germany's DAX Index was down by 0.16 percent and France's CAC 40 Index was 0.28 percent lower.