Sensex falls for fifth day; metal, IT stocks down

A benchmark index of Indian equities market lost for the fifth straight day Tuesday, as metal and information technology (IT) stocks fell.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 20,845.77 points, closed at 20,693.24 points, down 94.06 points or 0.45 percent from its previous day's close at 20,787.30 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 20,890.48 points and a low of 20,637.18 during the day.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed trade 29.20.00 points or 0.47 percent down at 6,162.25 points.

"On Tuesday, the market opened higher but quickly went below the lowest of last two days, which was at 6,170 (Nifty). That has fuelled further more bearishness," said Shrikant Chouhan of Kotak Securities.

"The sell-off was mainly due to weak global cues. However, towards the end it recovered partially on the back of quick surge into private banks and telecom stocks."

However, capital goods, consumer durables and automobile stocks gained.

The S&P BSE metal index was down 162.88 points, while the IT index was lower by 118.08 points and oil and gas index decreased by 116.50 points.

The capital goods index closed higher by 48.37 points, followed by consumer goods index which was up 12.24 points and automobile index edged higher by 11.05 points.

The major Sensex gainers were: Maruti Suzuki, up 2.18 percent at Rs.1,846.50; Sun Pharma, up 0.95 percent at Rs.593.75; ICICI Bank, up 0.89 percent at Rs.1,049.95; Bharti Airtel, up 0.87 percent at Rs.331.65: and Mahindra and Mahindra, up 0.79 percent at Rs.903.15.

The main losers were: Tata Steel, down 3.29 percent at Rs.394.80; Tata Power, down 2.87 percent at Rs.79.55; Sesa Sterlite, down 1.86 percent at Rs.194.85; Hindalco Inds, down 1.86 percent at Rs.116; and NTPC, down 1.78 percent at Rs.129.80.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.59 percent up and Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 0.13 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index went down by 1.80 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.43 percent up. And, so were Germany's DAX Index, higher by 0.60 percent, and the French CAC 40 Index, up by 0.42 percent.