By IANS
Mumbai : Indian stock markets continued its losses Tuesday for the fourth consecutive trading day on the back of heavy selling in several key sectors.
The markets that opened in the green failed to sustain the tempo and reversed gears after the day’s opening. The slide continued in the afternoon amidst heavy selling in realty, banking, capital goods, oil and gas and public sector unit scrips.
The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opened at 16,742.20 points and notched a high of 16,754.06 before closing at 16,339.89 points. It lost 337.99 points or 2.03 percent compared to Monday’s close.
The S&P CNX Nifty index on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), which opened at 4,958.55 points, closed at 4,864.25 after touching the day’s high at 4,976.70 points.
At close, it registered a fall of 88 points or 1.79 percent.
The BSE Midcap index, which closed at 7,190.92 points, went down 173.93 points or 2.36 percent. The BSE Smallcap index, which closed at 8,953.11 points, went down 285.24 points or 3.09 percent.
On BSE, the market breadth was extremely low with low trading volumes. A total of 466 shares advanced, 2,224 shares declined and 39 remained unchanged.
The top gainers of the day at BSE included Hindalco at Rs.198.90, up 4.74 percent, HDFC Rs.2670.00, up 3.84 percent, Maruti Suzuki at Rs.902.00, up 3.17 percent and Mahindra & Mahindra at Rs.705.00, up 3.03 percent.
The top losers of the day at BSE included ICICI Bank at Rs.968.55, down 5.46 percent, DLF at Rs.677.15, down 5.25 percent, Reliance Communication at Rs.513.00, down 5.25 percent and Cipla at Rs.202.00, down 4.56 percent.