Snapping a two-day rally, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex today dropped by over 213 points as investors sold stocks to book profit after a recent rally amid weak Asian cues.

The 30-share barometer fell 213.49 points to settle at 16,284.98 points, with 28 Sensex scrips closing in the red. The index had gained 357 points in the last two sessions.

The pull-down was mostly led by banking, auto, metal, capital goods and IT stocks. Selling pressure kept all the sectoral indices in the negative zone.

Investors booked profits and cleared their pending positions ahead of monthly contract expiry in the derivatives segment tomorrow, brokers said.

Asian markets dropped in line with Tokyo share index after Moody’s downgraded Japanese sovereign debt and banks.

Fears of interest rate hike by the Reserve Bank to tame rising inflation further hit the market sentiment and pulled down banking and interest sensitive sector stocks.

The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty plunged 60 points to 4,880.90.

TCS fell 1.71 per cent to Rs 962.75 and Infosys 1.06 per cent to Rs 2,249.95. Wipro fell 1.05 per cent to Rs 329.65. Reliance Industries fell 0.60 per cent to Rs 760.95.

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