Sensex falls 113 points; FMCG, Bank stocks decline (Roundup)

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets ended Monday's trade 113 points down, as fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), bank and metal stocks fell, hours ahead of the Reserve Bank's quarterly monetary policy announcements.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 20,696.51 points, closed at 20,570.28 points, down 113.24 points or 0.55 percent from the previous day's close at 20,683.52 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 20,771.36 points and a low of 20,550.64 intra-day.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also closed in negative territory. It ended at 6,101.10 points, down 43.80 points or 0.71 percent.

Heavy selling pressure was observed in FMCG, bank and metal stocks. However, healthy buying was observed in capital goods, consumer durables and oil and gas sectors.

The S&P BSE FMCG index lost 175.31 points, while bank index was down 149.12 points, and the metal index was lower by 146.58 points.

However, capital goods index was up 87.22 points, followed by consumer durables index, which gained 76.69 points, and oil and gas index which ended the day 27.25 points up.

The major Sensex gainers were Larsen and Toubro (L&T), up 1.89 percent at Rs.965.40; HDFC, up 1.35 percent at Rs.820.80; ONGC, up 1.02 percent at Rs.286.75; Reliance Industries, up 0.49 percent at Rs.890.20; and Wipro, up 0.42 percent at Rs.483.05.

The losers in the day's trade were ITC, down 3.63 percent at Rs.327.65; Sesa Sterlite, down 3.26 percent at Rs.195.60; Tata Steel, down 2.94 percent at Rs.312.40; State Bank of India (SBI), down 2.41 percent at Rs.1,676.20; and Hindalco Inds, down 1.97 percent at Rs.107.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 2.19 percent up, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was higher by 0.48 percent, and China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.04 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.05 percent lower, and Germany's DAX Index was down 0.01 percent. The French CAC 40 Index fell 0.48 percent.