Sensex falls over 200 points in early trade

Mumbai: The BSE Sensex dropped over 200 points to 37,373.08 today on heavy selling in metal, auto, banking, capital and realty stocks amid sustained capital outflows by foreign funds after the RBI yesterday hiked repo rate for the second time in two months.

The repo rate, at which the central bank lends to other banks, now stands at 6.5 per cent.

Moreover, fall in Asian stocks on renewed US-China trade war concerns influenced the sentiment here, brokers said.

The 30-share index dropped 248.42 points, or 0.66 per cent, to 37,273.20. The gauge had lost 84.96 points in yesterday's session.

Similarly, the NSE Nifty fell 72.80 points, or 0.64 per cent to 11,273.40.

Sectoral indices led by metal, auto, banking, capital goods and realty, falling up to 1.30 per cent.

Major losers were Vedanta, Tata Steel, Yes Bank, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Hero Motocorp, M&M, HDFC, RIL, Bajaj Auto, Bharti



Airtel, SBI, Kotak Bank, ICICI Bank, Adani Ports, NTPC, Axis Bank and HDFC Bank, losing up to 2.64 per cent.

Meanwhile, Sun Pharma, PowerGrid, Coal India, HUL, IndusInd Bank, ONGC and Infosys rose up to 1.42 per cent.

On a net basis, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth Rs 95.94 crore yesterday and domestic institutional investors (DIIs) sold shares worth Rs 562.33 crore, provisional data showed.

Elsewhere in Asia, Japan's Nikkei fell 0.36 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.54 per cent in early trade. China's Shanghai Composite index too was down 0.33 per cent.

US stocks closed mostly lower yesterday after the Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged but signalled another imminent rate increase. Fresh worries over US-China trade friction too dampened sentiment.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.32 per cent lower in yesterday's trade.