Sensex closes in red; capital goods stocks plunge

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets fell Wednesday for the third day in a row amid profit-booking.

Scrips of capital goods, oil and gas, realty, bank and metal companies plunged. However, there was healthy buying spree in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), healthcare and technology, media and entertainment (TECk) stocks.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened in the positive at 20,150.69 points, closed at 20,062.24 points, down 49.37 points or 0.25 percent from its previous day close at 20,111.61 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 20,220.35 points and low of 20,000.86 points intra-day.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also showed a downward movement and closed 0.32 percent or 19.60 points down at 6,094.50 points.

The BSE capital goods index was down 379.46 points, while the oil and gas index closed 86.60 points lower. The realty index was down 68.19 points, followed by bank index, down 65.50 points and metal index, down 49.54 points.

However, FMCG index was up 55.16 points, followed by the healthcare index, up 36.91 points, and TECk index, up 8.10 points.

Prominent Sensex gainers were: Sun Pharma, up 2.90 percent at Rs.1,001.90; Bharti Airtel, up 2.25 percent at Rs.311.80; Dr Reddys Lab, up 1.84 percent at Rs.2,056.55; NTPC, up 1.48 percent at Rs.154.65; and ITC, up 1.28 percent at Rs.335.80.

Among the major Sensex losers were companies like L&T that dropped 5.57 percent to Rs.1,517.10; Tata Power, down 2.16 percent to Rs.90.75; Hero MotoCorp, down 2.04 percent to Rs.1,650.85; Gail India, down 1.34 percent to Rs.331.10; and Sterlite Inds, down 1.25 percent to Rs.94.50.

Among other Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei closed 1.60 percent up but Hong Kong’s Hang Seng went 0.45 percent down. China’s Shanghai Composite Index closed lower by 0.12 percent.

In the European markets, Britain’s FTSE 100 was trading 0.11 percent up. However, the German DAX was down 0.03 percent and the French CAC 40 was ruling 0.13 percent lower.
Photo  : AFP