Sensex falls 302 points, banking stocks slump

Mumbai - A benchmark index for Indian equities markets was trading 301.66 points down at around noon Monday, led by selling pressure in banking, consumer goods, metals and auto stocks.

The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened in the red at 16,620.44 points, was ruling at 16,529.42 points at noon trade, down by 1.79 percent or 301.66 points from its previous close at 16,831.08 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 16,620.44 points and low of 16,516.77 points in the intra-day. The Sensex midcap was down by 108.07 points and smallcap fell by 89.98 points.

The wide-based 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange was down by 1.82 percent or 92.70 points at 4,994.15 points.

There was heavy selling pressure in banking, consumer goods, metals and auto stocks.

The BSE banking index was down by 2.80 percent or 315.53 points followed by capital goods index down by 1.41 percent or 125.46 points, metals index was down by 2.07 percent or 218.70 points and auto index was down by 1.27 percent or 127.63 points.

Banking stocks slumped a week after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced guidelines for implementation of the Basel III norms. The country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) was down by 3.64 percent at Rs.1,921.10. Private lender HDFC Bank's scrip fell by 3.33 percent at Rs.518.90 and ICICI Bank, fell 2.51 percent at Rs.813.

Hero MotoCorp's scrip plunged 3.13 percent at Rs.1,918.85 on negative buyer sentiments. Stock of other major auto companies were also trading lower such as Mahindra and Mahindra, down 2.41 percent at Rs.671.25, Maruti Suzuki, down by 0.79 percent at Rs.1,273.05, Tata Motors, down by 0.53 percent at Rs.299.80 and Bajaj Auto also down 0.15 percent at Rs.1,499.50.

Among other major Sensex losers, Sterlite Inds was down 2.67 percent at Rs.98.40, Hindalco Inds, down 2.59 percent at Rs.113, Tata Steel, down 2.50 percent at Rs.422.70, DLF, down 2.22 percent at Rs.2,387 and Reliance Industries, down 2.19 percent at Rs.710.55.

Only three of the 30 Sensex scrips were in the positive terrain. These were BHEL, up 0.68 percent at Rs.215.55; Cipla, up 0.51 percent at Rs.326.85 and Sun Pharma, up 0.20 percent at Rs.601.95.