Sensex down two percent on profit booking

A benchmark index of the Indian equities markets Monday closed 2.14 percent down on profit-booking and weak global cues.

The index had breached the 20,000-mark last week.

There was heavy selling pressure in the healthcare, bank and consumer durables stocks. However, information technology (IT) scrips rose.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened in the red at 20,073.41 points, closed at 19,691.67 points, down 430.65 points or 2.14 percent from its previous day close at 20,122.32 points.

Sensex touched a high of 20,109.08 points and low of 19,667.39 points in the intra-day trade.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was also trading flat 126.80 points or 2.08 percent down at 5,980.45 points.

The BSE healthcare index was down 8.01 points, followed by bank index, down 3.57 points, and consumer durables index, down 1.11 points.

Stocks of IT companies, however, rallied.

The IT index was up 1.25 points.

All 30 sensitive stocks on the BSE closed in the negative territory. ITC, down 5.31 percent at Rs.335.85; Tata Steel, down 4.22 percent at Rs.305.35; Bharti Airtel, down 4.14 percent at Rs.311.65; Tata Motors, down 3.27 percent at Rs.297.65; and Larsen and Toubro (L&T), down 2.96 percent at Rs.1,516.85.

Among other Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 1.20 percent higher, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng went down 1.42 percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index closed 0.22 percent lower.

In the European markets, Britain's FTSE 100 was trading 0.11 percent down and so was the German DAX, down 0.24 percent. The French CAC 40 was ruling 0.10 percent down.