Sensex Slips Below 34,000-Mark, Asian Paints Biggest Loser; Nifty Below 10,200

Mumbai: The benchmark BSE Sensex Tuesday extended its losing spree for the fourth straight day and dipped below the 34,000-mark in early trade, on unabated foreign fund outflows and selling by domestic institutional investors amid weakness in Asian markets.

Moreover, the rupee depreciating by another 23 paise to 73.79 against the dollar also dampened sentiments.

The 30-share index slipped 204.78 points, or 0.60 per cent, to 33,929.60. The benchmark had lost 1,028 points in the previous three sessions.

All the sectoral indices led by oil and gas, FMCG, capital goods and PSU, were trading in the negative terrain by falling up to 1.80 per cent.

In the Sensex kitty, Asian Paints suffered the most by falling 5.21 per cent after the company reported a 14.76 per cent fall in its consolidated net profit at Rs 506 crore for the September quarter Monday.

Other major laggards were ONGC, HUL, ITC Ltd, Kotak Bank, RIL, Wipro, ICICI Bank, NTPC, SBI, ICICI Bank, Infosys, TCS, HDFC Bank, Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, L&T, Vedanta Ltd, Tata Steel and Sun Pharma, declining by up to 2.59 per cent.

NSE Nifty was too dropped below the 10,200-mark by losing 73.40 points, or 0.72 per cent, at 10,171.85.

Meanwhile, on a net basis, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares of Rs 511.91 crore Monday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth Rs 303.21 crore, as per provisional data.

Asian markets were trading lower, tracking losses at the Wall Street in choppy trade Monday as caution grew ahead of a slew of earnings reports this week.

Japan's Nikkei dropped 2.21 per cent, while Korea lost 2.45 per cent. Hong Kong's Hang Seng down 2.01 per cent and Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.37 per cent in early trade.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average also ended 0.50 per cent lower in Monday's trade.