The BSE benchmark Sensex was down by 92 points in early trade on Thursday, dragged down by IT, tech, auto, metal and banking stocks offloaded by speculators amid the worsening euro zone debt crisis.
Declining for the fourth consecutive day, the 30-share Sensex resumed lower at 17,430.69 points and hovered in a range between 17,447.32 and 17,364.33 before quoting at 17,373.31 at 1015 hours, a net loss of 91.54 points, or 0.52 per cent, from its last close.
The NSE’s 50-share Nifty index was also down by 26.65 points, or 0.51 per cent, at 5,231.80 at 1015 hours.
The major losers in early trade were Hero MotoCorp (down 2.33 per cent), HUL (1.69 per cent), Sterlite Industries (1.46 per cent), HDFC Bank (1.32 per cent) and Wipro (1.31 per cent).
Meanwhile, Asian shares were down as fears that the escalating European debt crisis could unleash financial turmoil motivated investors to offload riskier assets. The key benchmark indices in Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore were down by between 1.05 per cent and 1.82 per cent.
Indications of a lower opening in U.S. index futures also dampened the trading sentiment at home.
