Thaindian News

Mumbai, July 16 (IANS) A benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed 110 points down Monday with IT, metal and realty stocks coming under selling pressure amid weak European cues.

Market sentiment was also affected by worries over weak monsoon. According to the Met. department, monsoon may miss forecast in July and may be deficient in September. Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said it would be a challenge to maintain the four percent agricultural growth of the last two years.

And inflation could accelerate with deficit rain.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened in the positive at 17,241.98 points, closed at 17,103.31 points, down 0.64 percent or 110.39 points from its previous day’s close at 17,213.70 points.

The wider 50-scrip S&P; CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange closed 0.57 percent down at 5,197.25 points.

The BSE IT index was down 125.28 points. And so were metal index, down 211.19 points, and realty index, down 27.71 points.

The major Sensex losers were: Tata Steel, down 3.95 percent at Rs.408.85; TCS, down 3.16 percent at Rs.1,210.10; Jindal Steel, down 2.69 percent at Rs.418.85; Tata Motors, down 2.63 percent at Rs.229.30; Infosys, down 2.48 percent at Rs.2,172.60.

The main gainers were: Bharti Airtel, up 3.85 percent at Rs.319.65; Dr Reddy’s Lab, up 1.81 percent at Rs.1,676.10; Maruti Suzuki, up 1.62 percent at Rs.1,202.80; Cipla, up 1.17 percent at Rs.332.75; ONGC, up 0.77 percent at Rs.285.95.

Among other Asian markets, Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.05 percent up and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed 0.15 percent higher. China’s Composite index was 1.74 percent down.

At closing bell here, European markets were trading mixed. France’s CAC was down 0.05 percent while Germany’s DAX was down 0.03 percent, Britain’s FTSE 100 was up 0.01 percent.