Sensex plunges more than 400 points; banking stocks sink (Third Lead)

A day after it broke a six consecutive session losing streak, a benchmark index of the Indian equities markets, the 30-scrip BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex), plunged more than 400 points or 1.50 percent during the late-afternoon session on Thursday.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was also trading deep in the red. It lost 141.95 points or 1.75 percent at 7,982.50 points.

The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 26,959.98 points, was trading at 26,427.67 points (at 2.50 p.m.), down 412.83 points or 1.54 percent from the previous day's close at 26,840.50 points.

The Sensex has touched a high of 27,000.14 points and a low of 26,400.76 points in the intra-day trade so far.

According to the Angel Broking, the Indian markets opened in the positive zone tracking SGX Nifty and its global peers.

Around 9.30 a.m. the Sensex had made gains of over 100 points and was trading at 26,944.14 points.

"The Indian markets reversed their downtrend on Wednesday for the first time in a

week. News of the MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International) EM (emerging markets) index deferring enlisting of the Chinese 'A' shares bought relief to the Indian markets," the broking firm said.

There was a possibility that India's weightage in the index may have been reduced, as a result of the entry of Chinese stocks and thus effect capital flows.

On Wednesday, the Sensex, had surged by around 400 points or more than 1.30 percent in the day's trade, after six consecutive sessions of losses.

During the intra-day trade so far, interest rate sensitive stocks like banking, automobile, capital goods, consumer durables, healthcare, information technology (IT), oil and gas and technology, entertainment and media (TECK) came under intense selling pressure.

The S&P BSE banking index plummeted by 440.19 points, followed by the automobile index which dwindled by 375.58 points, capital goods index plunged by 235.29 points, consumer durables index receded by 205.78 points, healthcare index was lower by 173.58 points and IT index fell by 128.14 points.

The S&P BSE oil and gas index lost 111.21 points and TECK index was down 62.49 points.