Snapping the three-day rally, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Monday fell by over 268 points as investors booked profit after the scaled a 17-month high last week amid weak global trends.
The 30-share Sensex, which had gained 441.55 points in the last three sesion, lost 268.14 points to 16,866.41 points as investors felt that the recent surge was overdone, amid reports of a weak US jobs data denting sentiment across Asia.
The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty also fell by 80.20 points at 5,003.20, after touching an intraday low of 4,991.95 points.
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The current fall was led by stocks in realty, tech, metal, auto and banking segments. Among the 30-BSE index related 23 stocks fell while seven ended with gains.
A steep fall in heavyweights Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Reliance Industries, Infosys, Grasim and Sterlite Industries pulled the market down.
Bharti Airtel, the biggest cellphone service provider, lost 8.05 per cent to Rs 400.30.
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Reliance Communications, the second-largest mobile phone operator, declined 5.60 per cent to Rs 300.20. Grasim Industries fell 7.10 per cent to 2,509.10 after it transferred its cement business to a subsidiary.