Markets open in the red, Sensex down 200pts

The markets have opened in the red owing to the negative global cues and the selling pressure visible across the board. The Sensex opened at 16,807, down 217 points and the S&P CNX Nifty opened lower by 70 points at 5,049.

Overnight, the US stocks suffered their worst loss in two weeks on Monday after comments from Germany's finance minister caused investors to fear Europe's solution to its debt crisis may not come fast enough.

The Dow Jones industrial average was down 246.58 points, or 2.12 per cent, at 11,397.91. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 23.72 points, or 1.94 per cent, at 1,200.86. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 52.93 points, or 1.98 per cent, at 2,614.92.

Moody's warned on Monday it may give a negative outlook on France's Aaa credit rating in the next three months if the costs for helping to bail out banks and other euro zone members stretch its budget too much.

The Asian markets were also trading in the negative zone. The Hang Seng shed 661 points at or 3.5% to 18,213, Shanghai was trading lower by 1.7% at 2,399, Nikkei was down 137 points at 8,742 and the Taiwan was at 7,334, down 127 points.

Back home, IT stocks were amongst the worst hit in the opening trades. TCS was the top loser among the Sensex stocks. The stock shed over 6% to Rs 1,050 after the company reported weaker than expected second quarter numbers. It reported increase of 6.1% rise in its net profit to Rs 2,301 crore from a year ago, on the back of favourable growth in international markets, strong growth in volumes and business wins across key verticals.  Wipro also shed 2.5% to Rs 348.

Hindalco, Tata Motors, DLF, Tata Steel, Sterlite Industries, J P Associates, ICICI Bank, Jindal Steel, State Bank of India and Infosys were also among the laggards down, 1.6-2.7% each.

On the other hand, Coal India, NTPC, Tata Power, Hero MotoCorp, HUL and ITC wer among the notable gainers on the benchmark index.

Among the individual stocks, HCL Technologies was trading lower by nearly 6% at Rs 414 on back of subdued first quarter figures. The profit after tax (PAT) declined 2.7% at Rs 496.7 crore comapared to Rs 510.5 crore during the previous quarter.

On the sectoral front, all the indices were trading lower. The BSE IT index was the top loser, down 3.3% or 190 points at 5,480. Realty, Metal, Bankex, Consumer Durables, Capital Goods, Auto and Oil & Gas indices were also trading lower by 0.75-2.75% each.

Among the realty stocks, Peninsula Land was the top loser, down 3.3% at Rs 40. DLF, Indiabulls Real Estate, HDIL, Uniotech, D B Realty and Sobha Developers also shed
1.3-2.7% each.

The broader markets were down nearly 1% each. The mid-cap index shed 55 points at 6,134 and the small-cap index was at 6,879, down 44 points.

The overall breadth was negative as 919 stocks were declining while 404 were advancing.