Sensex opens lower, Nifty slips below 6,150 levels

NEW DELHI: The S&P BSE Sensex opened on a cautious note on Monday, led by losses in NTPC, TCS, HDFC Bank, HDFC and Tata Steel. Following the momentum, the 50-share Nifty index slipped below its crucial level of 6,150 in trade today.

At 09:20 a.m.; the 50-share index was trading at 6147.30, down 8 point or 0.14 per cent. It touched a high of 6,147.80 and a low of 6,130.80 in early trade today.

The S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 20,682.39, down 18 points or 0.10 per cent. It touched a high of 20,701.47 and a low of 20,637.30 in trade today.

The S&P BSE Midcap Index was up 0.31 per cent and BSE S&P Smallcap Index edged higher by 0.48 per cent.

On the sectoral front, the BSE Capital Goods index was up 0.89 per cent, followed by the BSE Healthcare Index which was trading 0.51 per cent higher and the BSE Auto Index which was up 0.27 per cent.

The BSE Power index was trading 0.52 per cent lower, followed by the BSE IT Index was down 0.46 per cent, BSE Banking Index slipped 0.26 per cent and the BSE Consumer Durable index was down 0.11 per cent.

Tata PowerBSE 5.34 % (up 6 per cent), Axis BankBSE 2.48 % (up 1.08 per cent), Sun PharmaBSE 0.62 % (up 0.90 per cent), L&T (up 1.08 per cent) and BHELBSE 1.99 % (up 0.76 per cent) were among the major Sensex gainers.

NTPCBSE -10.18 % (down 6.7 per cent), TCSBSE -1.13 % (down 0.9 per cent), Tata SteelBSE -1.38 % (down 0.8 per cent) and HDFC BankBSE -0.06 % (down 0.6 per cent) were the major index losers.

Asian markets were trading with downward bias with China shares hitting their two-week low as mainland news reports stoked fears that the banks have stopped extending loans to property-related companies.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index was trading 0.3 per cent higher at 14,917.50 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was trading 0.85 per cent lower at 22,374.12.

South Korea’s Kospi index was trading 0.23 per cent lower at 1,952. China’s Shanghai index was trading 1.8 per cent lower at 2,076.