Despite Jaitley's assurance, Sensex falls further

The benchmark BSE Sensex stretched its losses for the fourth straight day today, falling over 84 points in early trade on sustained selling by participants, triggered by weak domestic as well as global cues. 

The 30-share index declined 84.16 points, or 0.31%, to 26,729.26. 

The gauge had lost 1,035.57 points in the previous three consecutive sessions after RBI took a cautious stance on the economic recovery and fears of a drought after the Met department downgraded 2015 monsoon forecast to "deficient". 

Similarly, the NSE Nifty slipped 28.95 points, or 0.35%, to 8,101.70. 

Major losers that dragged down the indices were realty, FMCG, banking, auto, IT, consumer durables and power sector stocks. 

Nestle India continued its slide for yet another session and was trading down 3.28% at Rs 5,813.60 after the company last night decided to take Maggi off the shelves following a controversy over its contents, prompting several states to ban the 'two-minute' noodles. 

Brokers said sentiment remained weak as investors engaged in selling activity amid absence of any positive domestic as well as global cues. 

Besides, overnight losses in US markets after the IMF slashed its forecast for US growth this year to 2.5% from a previous estimate of 3.1% hurt sentiment, they added. 

In other Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 0.46% while Japan's Nikkei shed 0.44% in early trade today. 

The US Dow Jones ended 0.94% lower in yesterday's trade.