Sensex drops 413 points due to profit-booking in heavyweights

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 16 : The key benchmarks of the domestic equity markets made losses on the back of profit-booking in heavyweight stocks like HDFC twins and Reliance Industries while stocks saw mixed global cues.

BSE Sensex dropped 413 points and settled at 61,932.47 while NSE Nifty lost 112 points and ended at 18,286.50 on Tuesday.

Mid and smallcaps, however, outperformed the benchmarks, ending in the green. The BSE Midcap index rose 0.18 per cent while the Smallcap index ended with a gain of 0.12 per cent.

In Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng went up 7 points, Japan's Nikkei surged 216 points, Thailand Set was trading in the red, China's Shanghai lost 19 points and Philippine STock was up 65 points on Tuesday.

In the US markets, Dow Jones surged 48 points, Nasdaq, NYSE, S-P/BMV and S-P 500 were trading in the positive territory.

In the European markets, BEL and CAC were trading in the negative territory, Deutsche Borse surged 19 points, FTSE 100 rose 7 points, IBEX went up 10 points and Madrid gained 1 point on Tuesday.

Some of the recent gainers, including HDFC twins, Reliance Industries, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ITC and Bharti Airtel saw profit booking which dragged the market benchmark lower.

US stock futures and European markets were not looking up on Tuesday ahead of the next round of talks of US lawmakers to raise the federal borrowing limit.

In another development, crude oil prices declined amid cautious market sentiment. Brent Crude traded about half a per cent lower near the USD 75 per barrel mark around 3:50 pm IST.

US Federal Reserve has said the banking system in the US is sound and resilient, with strong capital and liquidity but recent stress displays the need for vigilance as the country's central bank assesses and responds to such risks.