Sensex drops 85 pts on profit booking

The benchmark BSE Sensex fell by 85 points in early session today as power, PSU, metal and oil & gas, FMCG and banking stocks retreated after participants booked profits.

The 30-share index fell by 85.12 points or 0.25 percent to 33,639.32 in early trading. The gauge had garnered 964 points in the previous eight sessions.

The broader Nifty of NSE dropped by 17.30 points or 0.17 percent to 10,382.25. Apart from profit-booking by participants in recent gainers, sustained foreign fund outflows dampened the sentiment, brokers said.

NTPC, ONGC, Power Grid, ICICI Bank, ITC Ltd, L&T, Dr Reddy's, Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel, Infosys, SBI and Coal India fell up to 1.67 percent Meanwhile, foreign funds sold shares worth Rs 424.77 crore yesterday, the provisional exchange data showed. In the Asian region, Japan's Nikkei rose 0.17 percent while Shanghai Composite Index shed 0.49 percent and Hong Kong's Hang fell 0.65 percent in early deals.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.10 percent higher yesterday.