Sensex ends in red as late sell-off reverses early gains; down 181 pts

The BSE Sensex gave up all its early gains of over 435 points to end 181 points lower at 34,134.38 on Monday, due to late sell-off in oil&gas, consumer durables, PSU, IT and infrastructure stocks amid crude again rising past USD 80 a barrel.

The 30-share Sensex after a gap up opening at 34,689.39 points advanced to a high of 34,748.69 points in early session on the back of better-than-expected earnings from HDFC Bank, positive cues from Asian markets and recovery in the rupee.

However, emergence of selling in the last one hour of trading, it slipped into the negative zone to hit a low of 34,082.76 before ending at 34,134.38, registering a fall of 181.25 points or 0.53 per cent.

The index had lost 847 points in the previous two sessions on liquidity concerns as well as weak global cues.

Similarly, the NSE Nifty after shuttling between 10,408.65 and 10,224 points, ended 58.30 points, or 0.57 per cent, lower at 10,245.25.

Brokers said sentiments remained weak on macro concerns such as prevailing liquidity crunch in the market despite the RBI's measures to improve the situation in the market and rising crude prices.

Brent crude, the international benchmark, again went past the the USD 80-mark to quote USD 80.14 per barrel on Monday.

Besides, unabated capital outflows by foreign funds, dampened sentiments, they added.

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) offloaded shares worth Rs 618.26 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) had net sold shares worth Rs 2.14 crore on Friday as per provisional data.