Sensex Falls 110 Points; Banking, Oil and Gas Stocks Slump
Mumbai: A benchmark index for Indian equities markets fell 110 points due to profit-booking in banking, oil and gas and auto stocks, even as January derivatives expired.
The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened in the negative at 19,987.28 points, ended the day at 19,894.98, down 0.55 percent or 110.02 points from its previous day close at 20,005 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 20,008.83 points and low of 19,865.72 points in the intra-day. The expiry of January derivatives kept the markets volatile towards the end of the session.
The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed 0.35 percent or 21 points down at 6,034.75 points.
There was profit-booking in banking stocks, which had risen sharply this week due to rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
Banking index of the BSE dropped 0.42 percent. Oil and gas index declined 0.42 percent, IT index fell 0.26 percent and auto index declined by 0.11 percent.
The country's largest lender ICICI Bank slumped 1.93 percent at 
1190.85 after rising by 6.5 percent in the previous day.
Other major Sensex losers were Tata Power, down 2.17 percent at 101.20; HDFC Bank, down 1.87 percent at 643.40; Bharti Airtel, down 1.52 percent at 339.40; and RIL, down 1.39 percent at 886.55.
Only 11 of the 30 Sensex scrips closed in the positive terrain. BHEL, up 2.36 percent at 227.70; Sun Pharma, up 1.33 percent at 718.25; Hero MotoCorp, up 1.31 percent at 1823.40; and ITC, up 1.25 percent at 307.40 were among the major Sensex gainers.
