Sensex down 69 points in early trade

The market benchmark BSE Sensex extended its losses for the second straight day, falling over 69 points in early trade today on sustained selling by investors amid disappointing corporate earnings.

The 30-share Sensex fell further by 69.39 points, or 0.24 per cent, to 28,269.92 with auto, realty, healthcare and consumer durables stocks leading the fall. The gauge had lost 12.31 points in the previous session. The NSE Nifty fell by 17.10 points, or 0.19 per cent, to 8,775.20.

Brokers said that apart from profit-booking in recent gainers by investors, disappointing earnings by some bluechips companies like Tata Motors and Sun Pharma dampened sentiment.Shares of Tata Motors continued to remain



under pressure and tanked 7.81 per cent to Rs 448.80 after the company yesterday reported a steep 96.22 per cent decline in consolidated net profit for the December quarter.

Stocks of Sun Pharma too plunged by 3.28 per cent to Rs 628.80 on sustained selling by participants after the company reported 4.72 per cent decline in consolidated net profit for the third quarter quarter of 2016-17.

On the other hand, trends at other Asian markets was better in their early session with the Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rising 1.09 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei gained 1.22 per cent. Shanghai Composite Index too was marginally higher by 0.09 per cent. The US Dow Jones ended up 0.5 per cent yesterday.