Sensex down 68 pts; Nifty falls

The Bombay Stock Exchange (^BSESN : 16032.27 -9.91) benchmark Sensex on Tuesday lost over 68 points in opening trade as funds and retail investors preferred to book profits amid weak Asian markets.

The 30-share index, Sensex, declined by 68.60 points to 17,111.58 points. It had gained about 395 points in the past two sessions.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange (^NSEI : 4781.45 -11.2) index Nifty also slipped below the 5,100-points level and was quoted 19.40 points down at 5,084.15.

Brokers said besides fresh spell of profit-taking in heavy-weight stocks by funds and retail investors after recent gains, losses in other Asian markets, which were down by up to one per cent in early trade today, also dampened the trading sentiment here.

Stocks of oil and gas, banking and IT sectors, which had registered gains in the past few sessions, reacted to profit-booking.

Reliance Industries (RELIANCE.NS : 990.4 -2.85) fell by 0.76 per cent to Rs 2,178.85, ONGC (ONGC.NS : 1100.1 -6.15) by 0.46 per cent to Rs 1,181.10, Reliance Infra by 1.24 per cent to Rs 1,080.50, ICICI Bank (ICICIBANK.NS : 808.05 -4.35) by 1.29 per cent to Rs 905 and HDFC Bank by 0.89 per cent to Rs 2,812.95.

IT firm Infosys (INFOSYS.BO : 2467.3 -3.6) Tech moved down by 0.65 per cent to Rs 2,392 and TCS by 0.65 per cent to Rs 689.60.

However, stocks of Tata Steel (TATASTL.BO : 542.6 +9.15), Tata Motors (TATAMOTORS.BO : 680.5 +6.9), Hero Honda, Maruti Suzuki and SBI (SBIN.NS : 1936.25 -14.05) remained in positive zone on continued buying by funds and capped losses.