Metal, capital goods stocks pull Sensex down 102 points

Metal, capital goods stocks pull Sensex down 102 points

MUMBAI, SEPT 5: 

Indian markets were trading down over 0.5 per cent in the mid-session on Wednesday.

The BSE Sensex was trading down 101.61 points (0.58 per cent) at 17,339.26 and the NSE Nifty was trading at 5,235.85, down 38.15 points (0.72 per cent).

Metal (down 2.06 per cent), capital goods (1.66 per cent) and bankex (1.3 per cent) were the worst-hit. FMCG index was up 0.56 per cent and TECk index up 0.27 per cent.

Among the Sensex stocks, the top five gainers were Bharti Airtel, HUL, HDFC, HDFC Bank and TCS. The top five laggards were Jindal Steel, BHEL, Tata Steel, Sterlite Industries and ICICI Bank.

Market experts attribute this decline to profit-booking by investors. Markets remained range-bound in the past few days and were trading more or less flat. Global markets were also trading in the red.

According to market watchers, profit-booking was on account of investors looking cautious ahead of the ECB meet tomorrow.

In the global markets, Euro continued to fall ahead of the ECB meeting scheduled tomorrow to discuss the measures to tackle the region's debt crisis.

Asian stocks too declined as reports from China, US and Australia fuelled concerns that the economic slowdown was deepening.