Fall in ITC shares pulls down Sensex

Mumbai: A steep fall in the share prices of cigarette manufacturer ITC following strong speculation that the government would announce a major hike in excise duty on cigarettes in the forthcoming budget, pulled Sensex below its 25K levels in the intra-day trade on Monday.

ITC, which has the second highest weightage in the Sensex slumped 6.50 per cent on the BSE, its biggest single day drop since September 2013. However, a slight drop in the global crude oil prices helped the markets to recoup some of its early losses. The Sensex closed the day at 25,031.32, down 74.19 points or 0.30 per cent. The Nifty ended the day at 7,493.35, down 18.10 points or 0.24 per cent.