Sensex falls 213 pts on profit-selling, weak Asian cues

The 30-share barometer fell by 213.49 points to settle at 16,284.98 points, with 28 Sensex scrips closing in the red. The index had gained 357 points in last two sessions.

The pull-down was mostly led by banking, auto, metal, capital goods and IT stocks. Selling pressure kept all the sectoral indices in the negative zone.

Investors booked profits and cleared their pending positions ahead of monthly contract expiry in the derivatives segment tomorrow, brokers said.

Asian markets dropped in line with Tokyo share index after Moody's downgraded Japanese sovereign debt and banks.

Fears of interest rate hike by the Reserve Bank to tame towering inflation further hit the market sentiment and pulled down banking and interest senstive sector stocks.

The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty plunged by 60 points to 4,880.90.
Country's largest software exporter TCS fell by 1.71 per cent to Rs 962.75 and Infosys by 1.06 per cent to Rs 2,249.95. Wipro fell 1.05 per cent to Rs 329.65.

Reliance Industries fell by 0.60 per cent to Rs 760.95. The stock with Infosys carry nearly 21 per cent weightage on the benchmark.