By IANS
Mumbai : The Indian equities market opened with a sharp fall Monday, in line with its Asian peers. The slide was led by consumer durables and banking stocks, which saw heavy selling in early trade.
The 30-share benchmark sensitive index of the Bombay Stock Exchange opened with a loss of 291.18 points at 15,684.24. Fifteen minutes after the start of trading, the Sensex was at 15,630.03 points, down 345.49 from its close Friday.
At the same time the S&P Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was at 4685.25 points, down by almost 87 from its close Friday.
The market breadth was extremely weak with low volumes. In the initial trade 135 scrips advanced, 1,083 declined and 22 remained unchanged.
Other Asian markets were also sliding downwards Monday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was down 1.41 percent or 318.25 points at 22,183.08. Japan’s Nikkei plunged 1.74 percent or 222.81 points at 12,559.99. Taiwan’s Taiwan Weighted declined 2.66 percent or 227.10 points at 8,304.28. Singapore’s Straits Times fell 2.06 percent or 58.94 points at 2,807.34. South Korea’s Seoul Composite tumbled 1.86 percent or 30.97 points at 1,633.
Mahindra and Mahindra, ONGC and TCS were among the gainers at initial trade in the Indian market. ICICI Bank, Reliance energy and BHEL were among the top losers.