Sensex falls 100 pts; European markets open lower

The BSE Sensex extended losses in afternoon trade following weak opening of European markets. Oil & gas, FMCG, auto and healthcare stocks weighed down the market since early trade whereas the upmove in Infosys, SBI and L&T has capped the downside.

The BSE benchmark fell 99.88 points to 17,518.47 and the NSE benchmark was down 28 points to 5,317.65. France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE were down 0.5-1% following downtrend in US markets due to disappointing earnings.

Reliance Industries, India's most valued stock tanked 1.5% and state-owned oil & gas producer ONGC declined 0.75%.

Top commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors fell nearly 2% while Bajaj Auto and Maruti were down 0.7-1%.

Country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank dropped 1% whereas its rival State Bank of India gained 0.6%.

FMCG majors ITC and HUL, and top telecom operator Bharti Airtel slipped 1% each. Aluminium major Hindalco Industries plunged more than 2%.

Software services exporter Wipro tanked over 2% while its rival Infosys, ahead of first quarter earnings tomorrow morning, gained 1%.

State-owned power equipment maker BHEL and private power producer Tata Power plummeted 1.5%.

Most active shares on exchanges were Infotech Enterprises (moved up 5%), MCX India (gained 2.5%), SBI, Financial Technologies (rose 6%), AP Paper Mills (shot up 13%), Infosys and ICICI Bank.