Sensex pares some early losses; still down 200 points

Mumbai: The benchmark BSE Sensex recouped some of the initial loses to trade 198.80 points lower at 25,520.78 in early afternoon trade on buying support in Tata Motors, ITC and BHEL.

Among the 30-share Sensex pack, 24 stocks were in negative zone. The index had tumbled over 400 points and the NSE Nifty fell below 7,700-mark in early trade as investors preferred to book profits after two-session rally on worries over likely delay in Goods and Services Tax.

All the sectoral indices including, healthcare, realty, consumer durables and bankex were trading in red. After resuming lower at at 25,522.96, the Sensex moved in a range of 25,287.50 and 25,550.69 before quoting 25,520.78 at 1230 hours, down 198.80 points or 0.77 per cent from its last overnight close. NTPC, HDFC, HUL, ONGC, SBI, Hindalco were among the major BSE losers.

The broad-based NSE NIFTY was also trading lower by 75.65 points or 0.97 per cent at 7,742.95. Brokers said besides profit-booking by speculators and sustained capital outflows by foreign funds, sentiments were also dampened by the delay in implementation of the key GST law after the government yesterday gave up plans to reconvene the monsoon session of Parliament.

The government had kept the session alive on hopes of building a consensus on GST, which has been billed as one of the biggest economic reforms. Meanwhile, foreign investors sold shares worth Rs 452.13 crore on September 9, as per the provisional data. Asian stocks were mostly down after muted Chinese and Japanese economic data added to heightened worries about slackening global growth. The US stocks ended more than 1 per cent lower on September 9.