Sensex slides 190 points on profit-booking

The Sensex slumped almost 190 points to 32,193.63 and the NSE Nifty cracked below the 10,000-mark in early trade today as the August derivatives series began on a subdued note amid disappointing earnings by corporates.

The 30-share Sensex went down by 189.67 points, or 0.58 per cent, to 32,193.63. Tha gauge had gained 155.03 points in the previous two sessions.Metal, healthcare, bank, realty, technology, auto, power and IT stocks were trading in the negative zone, down by up to 0.88 per cent.

The NSE Nifty displayed a similar picture, which was down 53.15 points, or 0.53 per cent, at 9,967.40.

The laggards that pulled down the indices were Lupin, Hindustan Unilever, Sun Pharma, ONGC, TCS, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, Bajaj Auto, Tata Steel and HDFC Bank.

Dr Reddy's remained biggest the loser among Sensex components by slumping 5.13 per cent to Rs 2,487 after the company yesterday reported over 57 per cent drop in net



profit.

Shares of country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank were down 1.71 per cent to Rs 301.80 even as the company yesterday reported a marginal rise of 3.5 per cent in consolidated net profit for the first quarter of the current fiscal.

Bucking the trend, stock of conglomerate ITC Ltd was up 0.76 per cent after the company yesterday posted 7.37 per cent rise in standalone net profit for the first quarter ended June.

Emergence of profit-booking in recent gainers despite the beginning of the August futures and options series led to losses.A weak trend prevailed in Asia after two days of gains as investors digested a host of disappointing corporate results and a fall in the US technology stocks dented optimism, too weighed on sentiments here.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.50 per cent while Japan's Nikkei shed 0.42 per cent in early trade today.

Shanghai Composite Index too edged lower by 0.12 per cent.