Sensex drops over 200 points; RIL soars 8 per cent

Mumbai, August 13 

Domestic equity benchmark BSE Sensex dropped over 200 points in early trade on Tuesday, dragged by losses in index heavyweights HDFC twins, Infosys and ITC, amid weak global cues.

Shares of Reliance Industries (RIL), however, capped the losses on the index by rallying over 8 per cent.

The 30-share index was trading 240.75 points or 0.64 per cent down at 37,341.16 at 0930 hours; and the broader Nifty fell 62.80 points or 0.57 per cent to 11,046.85 in morning trade.

In the previous session on Friday, the 30-share index settled 254.55 points or 0.68 per cent higher at 37,581.91. The broader NSE Nifty jumped 77.20 points or 0.70 per cent to 11,109.65.

Financial markets were closed on Monday on account of Bakri Id.

Top losers in the Sensex pack during early trade included NTPC, Bharti Airtel, M&M, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Maruti, TechM, Infosys, PowerGrid, L&T and ITC, cracking up to 4.45 per cent.

On the other hand, RIL rallied to become the biggest gainer, after Mukesh Ambani on Monday announced plans to sell stakes in the firm's oil and chemicals business to Saudi oil giant Aramco and in fuel retail network to BP plc for Rs 1.15 lakh crore, and said its telecom unit Jio will begin offering fibre-based broadband services from next month.

Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Sun Pharma, ONGC, Yes Bank, Hero MotoCorp and Asian Paints were the other gainers, rising up to 2 per cent.

Foreign portfolio investors bought shares worth a net of Rs 203.73 crore on Friday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased shares worth Rs 606.92 crore, provisional data showed.

Elsewhere in Asia, Hang Seng, Kospi, Shanghai Composite Index and Nikkei were trading in significantly lower in their respective late morning sessions.

On the other hand, bourses on Wall Street ended lower on Monday.

The rupee, meanwhile, depreciated 30 paise against its previous close to trade at 71.08 in early session.

Brent crude futures, the global oil benchmark, slipped 0.15 per cent to trade at 58.49 per barrel. —PTI