Sensex down third straight day; IT stocks fall

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets fell for the third day Thursday by 42 points or 0.20 percent as information technology (IT) stocks faced selling pressure.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 20,766.05 points, closed at 20,725.43 points, down 42.45 points or 0.20 percent from the previous day's close at 20,767.88 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 21,039.42 points and a low of 20,656.70 intra-day.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also closed in negative territory. It ended at 6,164.35 points, down 14 points or 0.23 percent.

Heavy selling pressure was observed in information technology (IT), technology, entertainment and media (TECk) and metal stocks. However, healthy buying was observed in capital goods, automobile and bank sectors.

The S&P BSE IT index lost 149.78 points, while TECk index was down 73.45 points and the metal index was lower by 57.16 points.

However, capital goods index was up 102.53 points, followed by automobile index, which gained 72.93 points, and bank index which ended the day's trade 41.12 points up.

The major Sensex gainers were Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), up 2.59 percent at Rs.889.80; Larsen and Toubro (L&T), up 1.83 percent at Rs.964.60; Gail India, up 1.49 percent at Rs.351.40; HDFC Bank, up 1.34 percent at Rs.668.90 and Tata Motors, up 1.28 percent at Rs.379.40.

The losers in the day's trade were Wipro, down 4.25 percent at Rs.471.30; Coal India, down 3.25 percent at Rs.279.65; Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), down 2.52 percent at Rs.2,008.60; Jindal Steel, down 1.85 percent at Rs.240.90 and BHEL, down 1.68 percent at Rs.140.15.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.42 percent up, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.71 percent, and China's Shanghai Composite Index moved lower by 0.86 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.50 percent higher, while Germany's DAX Index was up 0.60 percent. The French CAC 40 Index gained by 0.16 percent.