Sensex drops over 200 points; Nifty slips below 7,700

NEW DELHI: The S&P BSE Sensex plunged as much as 215 points in trade on Friday, tracking weak trend seen in other Asian markets. The fall in the index was led by losses in M&M, NTPC, HDFC, Tata Steel and Sesa Sterlite.

Tracking the momentum, the 50-share Nifty index also slipped below its crucial psychological level of 7700, weighed down by losses in realty, banks, pharma and auto stocks.

At 09:20 a.m.; the BSE Sensex recouped some of the morning losses but was still trading 0.56 per cent lower or 145 points at 25,749. It hit a low of 25,679.46 and a high of 25,757.83 in trade today.

The 50-share Nifty index was trading 0.63 per cent lower or 49 points at 7,672. It hit a low of 7649.75 and a high of 7675.10 in trade today.

The S&P BSE Midcap Index was down 0.45 per cent and BSE S&P Smallcap Index edged lower by 0.20 per cent.

Cipla (up 0.4 per cent), Bharti Airtel (up 0.32 per cent), Infosys (up 0.3 per cent), Maruti Suzuki (up 0.22 per cent) and Wipro (up 0.18 per cent) were among the major Sensex gainers.

M&M (down 3.1 per cent), NTPC (down 2.9 per cent), DRL (down 2 per cent), HDFC (down 1.8 per cent), GAIL (down 1.4 per cent) and Sesa Sterlite (down 1.3 per cent), were major Sensex losers.