Sensex sheds 400 points, banking scrips lose

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed more than 400 points or 1.97 percent lower Thursday.

Selling pressure was seen in banking, capital goods, metal, oil and gas and healthcare sectors. All sectoral indices closed in red.

The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 20,579.26 points, closed at 20,229.05 points, down 406.08 points or 1.97 percent from its previous day close at 20,635.13 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 20,579.26 points and a low of 20,189.23 points intra-day.

The S&P BSE bankex tanked 311.87 points, capital goods index dropped 217.78 points, metal index shed 166.62 points, oil and gas index slipped by 144.25 points and healthcare index went down by 121.39 points.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed Thursday's trade 123.85 points or 2.02 percent down at 5,999.05 points.

"Markets continued to fall for the second successive day, largely on Fed taper concerns," said Dipen Shah, head, private client group research, Kotak Securities.

"The fall was broad based with almost all stocks in the Nifty ending in the red. Weak PMI data in China also impacted sentiments."

The main losers were: Sesa Sterlite, down 3.91 percent at Rs.179.35; HDFC, down 3.61 percent at Rs.779.40; Larsen and Toubro (L&T), down 2.86 percent at Rs.948.35, BHEL, down 2.70 percent at Rs.137.15 and NTPC, down 2.63 percent at Rs.150.10.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 1.92 percent up, while China's Shanghai Composite Index was down by 0.51 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng was lower by 0.04 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.07 percent up, Germany's DAX Index was down by 0.24 percent and the French CAC 40 Index was down by 0.31 percent.