Sensex gives up early gains, slips over 150 pts

The BSE Sensex washed out its initial gains, turning lower by more than 150 points in the late morning trade, due to fresh selling pressure mainly in auto, banking, consumer durables and refinery sectors following foreign capital outflows.

Volatility ruled as the key benchmark indices reversed their initial direction.

The Sensex resumed higher at 26,814.31 and firmed up further to 26,827.06 on initial buying. But it declined immediately to 26,588.70 before trading at 26,615.75 at 1145 hours, a loss of 152.71 points, or 0.57 per cent, from its last close.

The 50-share NSE Nifty also moved down 51.20 points, or 0.63 per cent, to 8,063.50 at 1145 hours.

 

Major losers include Vedanta (2.30 per cent), Tata Motors (2.12 per cent), Tata Steel (2.01 per cent) and SBI (1.57 per cent).

 

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) net sold shares worth Rs 550.29 crore last Friday, according to provisional stock exchange data while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) net bought shares worth Rs 879.50 crore.

Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is scheduled to announce current account deficit (CAD) data for the fourth quarter of 2014-15 today.

Asian stocks were a mixed bag today as key benchmark indices in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan rose up to 0.9 per cent while indices in Singapore, Indonesia and South Korea fell up to 1.02 per cent.