Sensex down 225 points in opening trade on profit booking

Snapping a seven-session winning streak, the BSE benchmark Sens*x fell over 225 points in opening trade on Monday on emergence of profit booking by funds and retail investors amid weak Asian markets.

The BSE-30 share benchmark Sens*x, which had gained nearly 1,112.73 points, or 7.5 percent in the past seven sessions, fell by 225.68 points at 15,696.66 points in opening trade with most of the sectoral indices falling up to 1.65 percent.

Similarly, the Nifty index on the wide-based National Stock Exchange fell by 70.35 points, or 1.48 percent to 4,662.00 points.

Brokers said emergence of profit booking by funds as well as retail investors after recording handsome gains in the past seven sessions, mainly led to the decline.

Besides, weak trend on the other Asian bourses which were down up to 5.37 percent in the morning trade also dampened the trading sentiments on the domestic bourses.

Stocks of non-ferrous metal producer, Sterlite Industries were under pressure and fell by 1.5 percent at Rs 684.50 as copper prices in Shanghai fell by over 2 percent.

Other losers were Infosys Technologies by 1.65 per cent to Rs 2,151.65, Larsen and Toubro by 2.77 per cent to Rs 1,569.80, Maruti Suzuki by 1.54 per cent to Rs 1,400, Tata Motors by 1.05 per cent to Rs 484.50, Reliance Industries by 0.84 per cent to Rs 2,053 and Reliance Infra by 1.18 per cent to Rs 1,155.15, Tata Consultancy by 2.31 per cent to Rs 528, Wipro by 1.62 per cent to Rs 554.95 and Tata Steel by 1.32 per cent to Rs 432.80.

The Shanghai index was down almost 5.37 percent, Japan's Nikkei was down 0.18 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index shed 1.89 percent in the morning trade on Monday.