Sensex tumbles over 400 pts after hitting lifetime high

Mumbai, January 30

The benchmark BSE Sensex dropped sharply by 448.81 points in late morning trade on Friday due to fresh selling pressure in banking, consumer durable and FMCG sectors despite buying in realty and power stocks.

The Sensex opened higher at 29,801.60 and shot up further to lifetime high of 29,844.16 on strong initial buying in view of strong foreign capital inflows.

However, it declined to 29,232.96 on profit-booking, showing a loss of 448.81 points, or 1.51 per cent, at around 1330 hours.

The CNX 50-share Nifty also dropped by 132.35 points, or 1.47 per cent, to 8,820 after hitting a lifetime high of 8,996.60 in early trade.

Major losers were Coal India, Dr Reddy, HDFC Ltd, HDFC Bank, TCS, M&M, Tata Motors and ITC.

Coal India shares dropped as the divestment of up to 10 per cent government stake in the state-run firm through the stock exchanges mechanism saw muted initial response.

Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1,723.77 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.

In overseas markets, Asian stocks were trading mixed.

US stocks registered broad-based gains yesterday amid a rebound in global crude oil prices.

Key benchmark indices in Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia rose 0.11-0.65 per cent while indices in Hong Kong, China and Taiwan fell 0.11-0.97 per cent.

PTI