Profit booking grips markets; Sensex sheds 118 points

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark index Sensex today extended the previous week's loss by falling further by 118 points as foreign funds continued to offload heavy-weight stocks, notwithstanding positive cures from Europe and mixed Asian trends.

The Sensex, which had lost 191 points in the last two trading sessions, lost another 118.63 points to close at 16,601.20 points, after moving between 16,750. 99 and 16,577.78 points.

In similar fashion, the broader National Stock Exchange index Nifty lost 35.10 points to close the day at 4,952.60, after touching a high of 4,997.85 and a low of 4,943.95 points.

Among the 30 Sensex stocks, 23 lost marginal to notable grounds while the rest ended with marginal gains.

A marginal rise in the heavyweight counters like Reliance Industries, State Bank, TCS, Wipro and ICICI Bank, saved the market from a major fall.

The market lacked necessary support from foreign investors, who are offloading their holdings before the long Christmas and year-end holidays, brokers said.

They said a mixed pattern of trading in the Asian region further fuelled the market sentiment.

Capital goods, auto, metal and realty sectors suffered sharp losses on profit-booking.

In Asia, indices from Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea landed in negative terrain at close while China, Japan and Taiwan closed with marginal gains.

Market even shrugged off the firm European cues. The FTSE was up by 0.60%, DAX by 0.59% and CAC by 0.46% in their early trade.