Sensex down 154 pts in opening trade

The BSE (^BSESN : 16632.01 -222.92) benchmark Sensex continued to lose ground for the second straight day, declining by another 154 points in morning trade, as the market adopted a cautious approach ahead of the RBI's quarterly policy review and on weak Asian cues.

The 30-share Sensex, which had lost 70.31 points in Monday's volatile trade, moved further down by 154.20 points to 16,586.30 in opening trade.

Brokers said players adopted a cautious approach ahead of the second quarter review of the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy to be released later on Tuesday.

They also said that continued profit-taking by funds and general investors as well as overnight losses in the US markets that triggered a opening for the other Asian markets further dampened the trading sentiments here.

Stocks of metals, banking and realty sectors, which had recorded handsome gains in the recent run-up, succumbed to profit-booking.

Among metal stocks, Sterlite Industries fell by 3.30 per cent to Rs 795.90, Tata Steel (TATASTL.BO : 544.9 +1.45) by 1.42 per cent to Rs 532.90 and Hindalco (HINDALC0.NS : 142 0) by 3.36 per cent to Rs 132.40.

Stocks of software firm Wipro Ltd (WIPRO.NS : 622.6 -6.7), however, climbed 3.34 per cent to Rs 611 after it reported 18.76 per cent increase in its consolidated net profit for the second quarter of FY10.

Meanwhile, the Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 1.5 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei shed 1.1 per cent in the morning trade. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.92 per cent down on Monday.