By IANS,
Mumbai : Snapping a nine-day rally, a benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed 46 points down Tuesday due to selling pressure in oil and gas, IT and healthcare stocks and weak global cues.
The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 18,514.72 points, closed 18,496.01 points, 46.30 points or 0.25 percent down from its previous day’s close at 18,542.31 points.
The Sensex closed 78 points higher Monday on the back of the Reserve Bank of India’s decision to cut the cash reserve ratio and the opening up of the retail and aviation sectors to foreign investment last week by the government.
The Sensex touched a high of 18,580.48 and a low of 18,469.51 points in intra-day trade. The BSE midcap index was up 55.69 points, while the smallcap index was 49 points high.
The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange closed 0.18 percent down at 5,600.05 points.
On the sectoral front, the BSE oil and gas index was down 100.61 points, while IT index was down 32.69 points and health care was down 16.08.
The major Sensex gainers were BHEL, up 5.44 percent at Rs.225; SBI, up 3.59 percent at Rs.2,150.65; Gail India, up 3.01 percent at Rs.387.90; Jindal Steel, up 2.64 percent at Rs.404.95; and Infosys, up 1.45 percent at Rs.2,599.65.
The main losers were Wipro, down 3.79 percent at Rs.369.60; TCS, down 3.02 percent at Rs.1,300.40; Hindalco Inds, 2.13 percent at Rs.114.75; RIL, 2.11 percent at Rs.855.20; and NTPC, down 1.51 percent at Rs.166.45.
Asian markets closed in red. Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.39 percent down, while Shanghai’s composite index closed 0.91 percent lower. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed 0.27 percent down.
At closing bell here, European markets were in red. France’s CAC was down 1.15 percent and so was Germany’s DAX, down 1 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 was trading 0.81 percent lower.