Sensex drops 100 points on muted earnings

The BSE Sensex fell over 100 points to 32,508.42 at the start of the last trading session of the Samvat year 2073 today, hit by muted quarterly earnings by some bluechips and profit booking by participants at record levels.The trend remained mixed in global markets.

The 30-share index fell by 100.74 points, or 0.31 per cent, to 32,508.42, with banking, PSU, capital goods, auto, healthare and oil & gas stocks dropping up to 6.6 per cent.

The broad-based Nifty slipped from record by falling 29.30 points, 0.29 per cent, to 10,205.15.

Brokers said sentiment turned bearish on unabated foreign fund outflows and lower-than-expected Q2 earnings by some bluechip companies amid profit-booking in recent gainers.

Markets will conduct a special 'Muhurat' trading session tomorrow between 1830 hrs and



1930 hrs on the auspicious occasion of Diwali.

Private sector lender Axis Bank plunged 6.64 per cent after it reported spike in the dud loan portfolio due to newer surprises, including an under-reporting found by the Reserve Bank. The bank posted a 38 per cent rise in September quarter net profit at Rs 432 crore on low base effect.

Other losers were ICICI Bank, SBI, Cipla, Lupin, Bajaj Auto, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paint, Tata Motors, Infosys, Sun Pharma and Coal India.

Investors were cautious with today being the last session of Hindu Samvat Year 2073.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.09 per cent while Japan's Nikkei rose 0.13 per cent in early trade today.Shanghai Composite gained 0.27 per cent.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.18 per cent higher yesterday