Sensex begins New Year on a weak note, falls by 83 points

Stock markets opened on a subdued note on the first trading day of 2015 with the benchmark BSE Sensex falling by over 83 points in early trade on profit booking after recent gains.

The 30-share index which had gained 290.81 points in previous four straight sessions, fell 83.84 points, or 0.30%, to 27,415.58 in early trade today.

Stocks of banking, oil & gas, metal, FMCG and power sector led the fall. HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Infosys, NTPC and Coal India fell up to 1.03% in early trade. Reliance, Sesa Sterlite, Gail, Hindalco, Dr Reddy's were also among major losers.

On the other hand, Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Auto, which had declined in the previous session on withdrawal of duty sops, recovered up to 1%.

The broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty was down by 28.75 points, or 0.35%, to 8,253.95. Brokers said profit-booking in stocks which logged gains recently and absence of cues from other Asian markets, which are closed today, mainly influenced the sentiment. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 0.89% down in the final day of 2014 on Wednesday.