Sensex closes 215 points down, bank stocks plummet

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed Thursday's trade 215 points down, as profit booking led to heavy selling in  bank, metal and automobile stocks.

The markets were cautious ahead of the releases of industrial and inflation data.

The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 20,046.05 points, closed at 19,781.88 points, down 215.57 points or 1.08 percent from its previous day's close at 19,997.45 points.

The benchmark Sensex surged to a high of 20,052.05 points and a low of 19,676.49 points in the day's trade.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) lost 1.06 percent or 62.45 points at 5,850.70 points.

Volatility due to profit booking was observed in the market which opened in the positive territory.

Heavy selling pressure was observed in bank, metal, automobile, oil and gas and consumer durables sectors. However, healthy buying support came into realty and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) stocks.

The S&P BSE bank index closed 218.76 points down, followed by metal index, which was lower by 218.71 points, automobile index was down 199.14 points, oil and gas index was down 145.65 points and consumer durables index declined by 109.39 points.

However, realty index was 6.92 points up and FMCG index gained 21.34 points.

Only seven out of 30 scrips on the sensitive index were gainers in the day's trade. These included Tata Power, up 2.75 percent at Rs.76.55; ITC, up 1.91 percent at Rs.336; Gail India, up 1.60 percent at Rs.308.80; NTPC, up 0.94 percent at Rs.139.05; and Cipla, up 0.66 percent at Rs.437.50.

The main losers were: Tata Steel, down 4.13 percent at Rs.302.95; BHEL, down 3.99 percent at Rs.134.80; Hero MotoCorp, down 3.72 percent at Rs.2,010.75; ONGC, down 3.27 percent at Rs.279.35; and Maruti Suzuki, down 3.03 percent at Rs.1,319.55.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.26 percent down, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended the day's trade 0.07 percent up. China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.64 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.07 percent down, while Germany's DAX Index was lower by 0.11 percent. The French CAC 40 Index was 0.34 percent down.