Sensex cracks below 34,000, Nifty slips to 10,172 on weak global cues in early trade; Asian Paints falls 6%

Mumbai: The benchmark BSE Sensex on Tuesday extended its losing spree for the fourth straight day and dipped below the 34,000-mark in early trade, on unabated foreign fund outflows and selling by domestic institutional investors amid weakness in Asian markets. Moreover, the rupee depreciating by another 23 paise to 73.79 against the dollar also dampened sentiments.

The 30-share index slipped dropped 204.78 points, or 0.60 percent, to 33,929.60. The benchmark had lost 1,028 points in the previous three sessions.

All the sectoral indices led by oil and gas, FMCG, capital goods and PSU, were trading in the negative terrain by falling up to 1.80 percent. In the Sensex kitty, Asian Paints suffered the most by falling 5.21 percent after the company reported a 14.76 percent fall in its consolidated net profit at Rs 506 crore for the September quarter Monday. [caption id=“attachment_5263731” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representative image. Reuters[/caption] Other major laggards were ONGC, HUL, ITC Ltd, Kotak Bank, RIL, Wipro, ICICI Bank, NTPC, SBI, ICICI Bank, Infosys, TCS, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, L&T, Vedanta Ltd, Tata Steel and Sun Pharma, declining by up to 2.59 percent. NSE Nifty was too slipped below the 10,200-mark by losing 73.40 points, or 0.72 percent, at 10,171.85. Meanwhile, on a net basis, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares of Rs 511.91 crore Monday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 303.21 crore, as per provisional data. Asian markets were trading lower, tracking losses at the Wall Street in choppy trade Monday as caution grew ahead of a slew of earnings reports this week. Japan’s Nikkei dropped 2.21 percent, while Korea lost 2.45 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng down 2.01 percent and Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.37 percent in early trade. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average also ended 0.50 percent lower in Monday’s trade.