Sensex closes 86 points down; auto stocks fall (Roundup)

A benchmark index of the Indian stock markets closed Friday's trade down 86 points or 0.38 percent on profit-booking. Automobile, oil and gas, and capital goods stocks fell.

Markets were bearish a day after the 30-scrip sensitive index S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) touched a new record high of 22,792.49 points.

The S&P Sensex, which opened in the red at 22,642.05 points, ended the day's trade at 22,628.96 points, down 86.37 points or 0.38 percent from its previous day's close at 22,715.33 points.

The Sensex hit an intra-day high of 22,679.18 points and a low of 22,526.89 points.

"The firm trend in the Sensex continued as it closed 1.1 percent up for the week. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) remained strong buyers of Indian equities," said Dipen Shah, head - private client group research, at Kotak Securities.

"The sensex would start the next week (truncated by two holidays) with Infosys numbers followed by those of TCS and HCL later into the week. Apart from this, there would be inflation data."

In Friday's trade, automobile, oil and gas, capital goods and bank stocks came under selling pressure. However, information technology (IT), healthcare, technology, entertainment and media (TECK) and consumer durables scrips rallied.

The automobile index of the BSE tanked 162.86 points, oil and gas index was down 125.55 points, capital goods index slipped by 121.20 points, bank index fell 116.08 points.

However, IT stocks gained 134.03 points, followed by healthcare index which rose 94.58 points, TECK index increased by 58.77 points and consumer durables scrips was up 26.88 points.

The wider 50 scrip S&P Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) too ended in negative territory. It closed 20.10 points or 0.30 percent down at 6,776.30 points.

The major Sensex gainers were: Sun Pharma, up 1.87 percent at Rs.627.75; Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), up 1.75 percent at Rs.2,163.70; Wipro, up 1.34 percent at Rs.567.95; Cipla, up 1.16 percent at Rs.402.05; and Infosys, up 0.91 percent at Rs.3,235.85.

Sensex main losers were: Mahindra and Mahindra, down 1.75 percent at Rs.1,002.85; Tata Motors, down 1.75 percent at Rs.423.25; Reliance Industries, down 1.65 points at Rs.952.85; State Bank of India (SBI), down 1.61 points at Rs.1,994.30; and Gail India, down 1.59 percent at Rs.372.05.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 2.38 percent down, Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended 0.79 percent lower. China's Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.18 points.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 1.19 percent lower at the closing bell here. Germany's DAX Index decreased by 1.87 percent, while the French CAC 40 Index fell by 1.38 percent.