Sensex down nearly 180 points; automobile stocks fall

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets, the 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex), made heavy losses during the pre-afternoon trade session on Monday. It was down nearly 180 points or 0.63 percent.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was also trading in the red during the pre-afternoon trade session. It was lower by 55.85 points or 0.65 percent at 8,550.15 points.

The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 28,525.65 points, was trading at 28,263.01 points (at 10.00 a.m.) in the early session, down 179.09 points or 0.63 percent from the previous day's close at 28,442.10 points.

The Sensex had touched a high of 28,539.46 points and a low of 28,254.72 points in the intra-day trade so far.

According to Angel Broking, the weakness on in the Indian markets was due to negative global cues such as last week's sell-off in Chinese futures, which fell sharply amid concerns about new trading regulations.

The financial situation of the Greece debt crises and its fall-out on the Eurozone economy also concerned the Indian markets which have been seeing a string of disappointing fourth quarter results.

In Monday's trade, healthy buying was observed in consumer durables and oil and gas sectors.

However, stocks of automobile, information technology (IT), capital goods, technology, entertainment and media (TECK), metal and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) came under heavy selling pressure.

The BSE S&P automobile index receded by 307.26 points, followed by IT index which declined by 205.11 points, capital goods index decreased by 122.64 pointa, metal index was down by 91.55 points and FMCG index fell by 88.16 points.

However, the S&P BSE consumer durables index was higher by 89.06 points and oil and gas index was marginally up by 1.18 points.