Sensex closes 80 points down, FMCG, oil and gas stocks slump

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed 80 points down Monday due to heavy selling pressure in FMCG, oil and gas and PSU stocks.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 18,756.31 points, closed 18,673.34 points, 79.49 points or 0.42 percent down from its previous day's close at 18,752.83 points.

The market sentiment was also affected after rating agency Standard and Poor’s cut India's 2012 growth forecast to 5.5 percent from 6.5 percent projected earlier.

The Sensex touched a high of 18,811.13 points and a low of 18,650.43 points in intra-day trade.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange closed 0.38 percent down at 5,669.60 points.

On the sectoral front, the BSE FMCG index was down 78.15 points while oil and gas index was down 126.96 points and PSU index was down 37.17 points.

Major Sensex gainers were BHEL, up 6.41 percent at Rs.247.20; Jindal Steel, 4.18 percent at Rs.444.45; Mahindra and Mahindra, up 3.66 percent at Rs.837.70; Maruti Suzuki, up 3.13 percent at Rs.1,353.80; and HDFC Bank, up 1.47 percent at Rs.634.45.
Major Sensex losers were HDFC, down 2.52 percent at Rs.759.50; ITC, down 2.25 percent at Rs.255.75; Hindustan Unilever, down 2.16 percent at Rs.518.10; ONGC, down 2.06 percent at Rs.287.30; and RIL, down 1.61 percent at Rs.836.25.

Other Asian markets closed mixed. Japan's Nikkei closed 0.45 percent down, while Shanghai's composite index closed 0.32 percent higher. Hong Kong's Hang Seng closed 0.19 percent down. 

European markets were trading in red. France's CAC was down 1.11 percent and so was Germany's DAX, down 0.60 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 was trading 0.48 percent down.