Sensex extends losses; auto, IT stocks hit

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed Wednesday's trade in red, a day after it plunged 449 points due to a weak rupee and negative cues from global markets.

The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened in the positive at 18,758.53 points, closed at 18,664.88 points, down 68.18 points or 0.36 percent from its previous day close at 18,733.04 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 18,811.46 points and a low of 18,551.35 points intra-day.

Major sectors like automobile, information technology (IT) banking, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), technology, entertainment and media (TECk) and capital goods saw heavy selling. However, healthy buying was seen in oil and gas, metal, public sector undertakings (PSU), consumer durables and realty scrips.

The partially convertible rupee fell to 61.46 against a dollar at the inter-bank foreign exchange market here. The rupee hovered around Rs.61.24 against a dollar around 5.40 p.m. Wednesday. The Indian currency had closed at 60.77 against a US dollar Tuesday.

The S&P BSE automobile index lost 149.09 points, followed by IT index which decreased by 121.05 points, FMCG index was down 90.22 points, TECk index closed Wednesday's trade down 49.57 points and capital goods index was lower by 36.14 points.

The S&P BSE oil and gas index closed higher by 224.29 points, metal index was up 214.23 points, PSU index was higher by 121.17 points, consumer durables index was up 63.34 points and realty index was 58.57 points up.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed Wednesday's trade was down 23.15 points or 0.42 percent at 5,519.10 points.

Scrip of Tata Motors Wednesday fell 2.96 percent or 8.50 points at Rs.278.85 from its previous close of Rs.287.35 after the firm reported a decline of 23.11 percent in consolidated net profit for the first quarter of the current fiscal at Rs.1,762 crore from Rs.Rs.2,245 crore in the corresponding period of last fiscal.

Other major Sensex losers were: HDFC, down 2.95 percent at Rs.729.40; Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), down 2.72 percent at Rs.1,819.70; Sun Pharma, down 2.56 percent at Rs.524.10; ITC, down 2.30 percent at Rs.322.70; and Bajaj Auto, down 2.11 percent at Rs.1,771.20.

A majority 16 companies of the 30-sensitive index were gainers. These included Tata Power, up 7.85 percent at Rs.76.95; Sterlite Inds, up 5.04 percent at Rs75; Tata Steel, up 4.58 percent at Rs.207.70, State Bank of India (SBI), up 4.44 percent at Rs.1,713.55; and Jindal Steel, up 4.30 percent at Rs.203.80.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 4.00 percent down in Wednesday's trade; Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down by 1.53 percent and China's Shanghai Composite Index was lower by 0.67 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.79 percent down. Germany's DAX Index was 0.29 percent lower and the French CAC 40 Index was up 0.24 percent.