The Hindu Business Line : Sensex down on weak global cues

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex lost 273 points in early trade on selling by funds triggered by weakening trends in global stock markets amid surge in crude oil.

The 30-share index, which shed 47.36 points yesterday, tumbled by 273.54 points, or 1.93 per cent to 13,721.42 after most of the heavy-weight stocks suffered sharp losses.

Similarly, the National Stock Exchange's index Nifty fell by 81.05 points or 1.67 per cent to 4,142.00. Stock brokers said reports of weakening trend in the global stock markets as funds turned cautious over a huge $700 billion US government's proposed p lan to bail out the banking industry after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and sell out of Merrill Lynch, mainly depressed the trading sentiments here.

They said surge in crude oil prices in the overseas markets was another dampening factor. Crude Oil prices spiked more than $7 a barrel above $111 yesterday.

Major losers, which dragged the Sensex down were Reliance Industries, ONGC, Reliance Infra, RCom, Tata Steel, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, BHEL, Larsen and Toubro, DLF Ltd, Ranbaxy, Infosys Technologies and Wipro.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was down 1.9 per cent in early trade, while US Dow Jones Industrial average fell nearly two per cent yesterday. - PTI

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