Sensex falls for sixth day; tanks over 200 points

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets fell for the sixth consecutive session and tanked 209.05 points or 1.02 % on  Tuesday over concerns that the US Federal Reserve may scale back its bond purchases earlier than expected.

Selling pressure was observed in banking, metal, auto, capital goods and oil and gas sectors, while only fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) saw some positive buying.

The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 20,510.31 points, closed at 20,281.91 points, falling 209.05 points or 1.02 % from its previous day close at 20,490.96 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 20,584.22 points and a low of 20,262.22 points intra-day.

The S&P BSE bankex plunged 199.21 points, metal index plummeted 165.28 points, auto index tanked 191.86 points, capital goods index dipped 135.87 points and oil and gas index went down by 98.04 points. However, FMCG index inched up marginally by 36.32 points.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed trade at 60.75 points or 1 % up at 6,018.05 points.

Major Sensex gainers were: ITC, up 0.87 % at Rs.319.75 and Mahindra & Mahindra, up 0.71 % at Rs.877.

Major Sensex losers were: Tata Motors, down 4.53 % at Rs.360.05; Tata Power, down 2.70 % at Rs.79.25; ICICI Bank, down 2.43 % at Rs.1012.45; Tata Steel, down 2.15 % at Rs.352.30; ONGC, down 1.76 % at Rs.265.85 and SBI, down 1.73 % at Rs.1,675.45.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 2.23 % up; China's Shanghai Composite Index was up by 0.82 % while Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down by 0.73 %.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.25 % down, Germany's DAX Index was down 0.26 % and the French CAC 40 Index was down by 0.30 %.