Mumbai -- Finally, the markets closed lower with benchmark Sensex losing 367 points after touching an intra-day high of 11971.60 and low of 11505.60 to close at 11550.69. The heavy selling pressure, as metal, capital goods, FMCG, pharma, auto and technology stocks were down on profit booking, dragged the Sensex down. Nifty is down by over 101 points at 3374.30 registering a fall by 2.8%. BSE Metal index fell over 5% and BSE FMCG index was down by over 4%.
The major losers were Reliance Industries,which has lost 3.8% to Rs. 1087, Grasim Industries, Infosys Technologies, BHEL, HDFC Bank, HDFC, Tata Motors, Maruti Udyog, Tata Steel, Bajaj Auto, Reliance Energy, State Bank of India, ACC and Hindustan Lever.
HDFC Bank and Gujarat Ambuja are down over 3% each to Rs. 822 and Rs. 111, respectively. Out of 2,538 stocks traded so far, 1,815 have registered downfall, 658 have advanced and the rest are unchanged. The market breadth was negative, about 741 shares have advanced, 1667 shares declined, and 65 shares are unchanged.
Despite sharp fall in crude oil prices Oil & Gas stocks were down. BPCL has dipped by 0.5% to Rs. 386, IOC was down by 0.62% to Rs. 512 and Reliance Industries shed 3.8% to Rs. 1087.
Profit booking was witnessed in technology stocks. Satyam Computer shed 2.7% to Rs. 775, Wipro was down 1.8% to Rs. 499, Rolta declined 3.9% to Rs. 211 and Infosys was down 3.1% to Rs. 1733.
At the same time, selling pressure dragged the Auto stocks down. Tata motors lost 5.7% to Rs. 847, M&M dipped 3.1% to Rs. 624, Bajaj Auto was down to Rs. 2698 and Maruti plunged 2.4% to Rs. 917.
