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Markets extended losses in late trades on Monday, amid weak Asian cues, as selling pressure continued in rate sensitive shares with banks leading the decline ahead of the RBI monetary policy review tomorrow.
At 2:35PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 369 points at 20,764 and the 50-share Nifty was down 112 points at 6,155.
Further, sell off in emerging markets amid worries that the US Federal Reserve would continue trimming its monetary stimulus measures and concerns over liquidity crunch in China, the world's second largest economy also weighed on investor sentiment.
Asian markets ended with steep losses today. Japan's benchmark index Nikkei ended down 2.5% with major exporters leading the fall after the local currency yen firmed up against the US dollar. China's Shanghai COmposite ended down 1% on reports of liquidity crunch. Hang Seng ended down 2.1% while Straits Times ended down 1.2%.
The BSE Realty Index was the top loser among the sectoral indices on the BSE down 5.1% followed by Bankex, Metal, Power, Capital Goods, Oil and Gas indices were the top losers.
ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, HDFC, Axis Bank and SBI were down 1-4% each contributing the most to the Sensex decline.
In the auto segment, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki, M&M, Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp were down 0.6-5% each. Sentiment in Tata Motors stock remained subdued on news that Karl Slym, managing director, died after falling from a hotel room in Bangkok.
Capital goods major L&T extended losses and was down 2.6% while BHEL slipped 1.5%.
Index heavyweights Infosys and Reliance Industries also witnessed profit taking. RIL was down 2% while Infosys slipped 0.6%.
Meanwhile, Ranbaxy Labs continued to witness selling pressure and was down 7%. Last week, the USFDA barred the import of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) manufactured at the company’s facility in Toansa, Punjab.
In the broader markets, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were down over 2% each.
Market breadth continued to remain weak with 1,863 losers and 590 gainers on the BSE.
