Sensex fails to maintain initial gains, drops 102 points

MUMBAI: The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex erased initial gains by dropping 102 points in morning trade on Thursday due to fresh selling pressure from operators mainly in refinery, power, banking and consumer durable sectors amid weak global trends.

The 30-share barometer Sensex resumed higher at 20, 478.67 and firmed up further to 20, 503.86 on initial buying in select counters amid fresh foreign capital inflows.

However, it declined immediately to 20,346.97 at 10.30am due to fresh selling, showing a loss of 101.52 points or 0.50 per cent from its last close.
The NSE 50-share index Nifty also dropped by 29.10 points or 0.48 per cent to 6,054.90 at 10.30am.

Major losers were – Cipla 5.40 per cent, Coal India 2.02 per cent, ONGC 1.52 per cent, HDFC 1.47 per cent, Tata Power 1.46 per cent, BHEL 1.30 per cent, Wipro 1.17 per cent, SBI 1.08 per cent and HDFC Bank 1.05 per cent.

Asian stocks dropped in their early trade after the recent advances.

Key benchmark indices in Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Indonesia and Taiwan fell by 0.06 to 0.98 per cent; while indices in Singapore and China were up by 0.08 to 0.36 per cent.