Sensex ends more than 250 points down; metal stocks sink

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed Monday's trade more than 250 points down, as stocks like metal and capital goods plunged.

Investor sentiment was down after Friday's industrial activity data, measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) was below expectations. It only grew 0.5 percent in the month of July over the same month of the previous year.
India's retail inflation too slowed down marginally at 7.8 percent in August from 7.96 percent in the previous month.

There was also anxiety regarding global cues such as US Fed rate hike and the upcoming China factory output.

However, India's annual rate of inflation, based on official wholesale price index, gave some relief to the market as it fell to a near-five-year low of 3.74 percent for August.

The annual inflation rate stood at 5.19 percent for the previous month and 6.99 percent for August of 2013. Notably, the annual inflation rate for food articles in August fell to 5.15 percent from 19.17 percent in the like month of the previous year.

Reacting to all the above, the 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 26,998.07 points, closed trade at 26,802.09 points (provisional), down 258.95 points or 0.96 percent from the previous day's close at 27,061.04 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 26,998.07 points and a low of 26,794.10 points in the intra-day trade.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was range bound at 8,000-mark. However, it closed the day's trade in negative territory. It was down 63.50 points or 0.78 percent at 8,042 points.

Metal, capital goods, information technology (IT), oil and gas and bank stocks sustained heavy selling pressure, while healthcare and realty stocks rose.

The S&P BSE metal index was down 225.96 points, capital goods slipped by 154.38 points, oil and gas index was lower by 123.34 points, bank index plunged 118.33 points and oil and gas index lost 93.94 points.
 
However, healthcare index was up 42.09 points and realty index increased by 0.40 percent. The major Sensex losers were: Hindalco, down 3.26 percent at Rs.163.10; Tata Steel, down 2.09 percent at Rs.506.25; ONGC, down 1.90 percent at Rs.421; Sesa Sterlite, down 1.72 points at Rs.285.50; and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), down 1.68 percent at Rs.2,562.

The major Sensex gainers were: Cipla, up 2.13 percent at Rs.625.60; Hero MotoCorp, up 1.74 percent at Rs.2,805; DrReddys, up 0.42 percent at Rs.2,973.55; and HDFC Bank, up 0.42 percent at Rs.858.90.