Sensex falls 220 points on profit-taking

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex fell by nearly 220 points at 14,082 in early trade on Wednesday as funds and investors preferred booking profits at attractive higher levels after two sessions of strong rally.

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex fell by nearly 220 points in early trade on Wednesday as funds and investors preferred booking profits at attractive higher levels after two sessions of strong rally.

HT Image

The 30-share barometer, which rallied 18 per cent in last two trading sessions on hopes of a pro-market and accelerated reforms by the UPA government, lost 219.76 points at 14,082.27 on fresh spell of profit-taking mostly in banking and technology sector stocks.

Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty moved down by 65.15 points to 4,253.30 points.

Marketmen said apart from profit-taking, a mixed trend in the global equity markets also triggered selling on the domestic bourses.

Major losers were, RIL down by 0.20 per cent to Rs 2,231, RCom by 6.30 per cent to Rs 295.80, ICICI Bank by 4 per cent to Rs 728.25, Bharti Airtel by 5.32 per cent to Rs 866, DLF Ltd by 2.90 per cent to Rs 2,102, Grasim Industries by 4.06 per cent to Rs 369.10 and Maruti Suzuki by 0.80 per cent to Rs 991.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average had closed 0.34 per cent down yesterday, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell by 0.50 per cent in early trade on Tuesday.