Sensex down 161 pts in early trade as BJP heads towards defeat

Continuing its slide for the 8th straight session, the benchmark BSE Sensex on Monday fell by over 161 points in early trade on sustained selling by participants after trends suggesting that the BJP was heading towards defeat in Delhi Assembly polls.

Besides, lower-than-expected quarterly earnings by L&T and other bluechip companies and weak trend in global markets dampened trading sentiments.

The 30-share index fell by another 161.87 points, or 0.57%, to 28,065.52. The gauge had lost 1,454.38 points in the previous seven days. On similar lines, the National Stock Exchange Nifty slipped below the 8,500-level by losing 55.85 points, or 0.65%, to 8,470.50.

Sectoral indices, led by capital goods, realty, oil & gas, healthcare and teck, were trading in the negative zone with losses up to 0.47%.

Brokers said sentiments remained bearish following early trends showing that the BJP was far behind the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) while counting was on for the Delhi Assembly election results. They said, however, the government's projection of economy may grow at a faster pace of 7.4% in the current fiscal as against 6.9% in 2013-14 restricted the losses to some extent. Among other Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down by 0.19%, while Japan's Nikkei index shed 0.78% in morning trade.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.53% lower on Monday's trade.