Bourses turn bearish as Sensex falls 354 pts on selling in Reliance Industries & Maruti

Mumbai: Benchmark Sensex fell back by 354 points on Monday due to selling in Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel and Maruti amid weak trends from Asian and European markets.

The 30-share BSE Sensex declined by 354.21 points or 0.49 per cent to settle at 71,731.42 on fag-end selling. During the day, it hit a high of 72,385.93 and a low of 71,602.14. The Nifty fell by 82.10 points or 0.38 per cent to close at 21,771.70. Sensex and Nifty has gained around 0.7 per cent in the previous session.

After a flat opening, benchmark indices moved in a narrow range before a sharp fall in the final hour. FMCG, telecom, financials and IT shares were on the back while pharma, auto and energy shares advanced.

Among the Sensex firms, Bajaj Finance, Bharti Airtel, Maruti, Bajaj Finserv, HCL Technologies, Titan, Hindustan Unilever, JSW Steel, UltraTech Cement, State Bank of India and Reliance Industries were the major laggards.

Tata Motors jumped nearly 6 per cent after the company on Friday reported a two-fold jump in net profit at Rs 7,100 crore for the December quarter. Sun Pharma, Power Grid, Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata Steel, NTPC and Tata Consultancy Services were the other gainers.

The rupee depreciated 8 paise to settle at 83.06 against the US dollar on Monday, as strengthening American currency overseas and negative sentiment in the domestic equity markets weighed on the

local unit.