Sensex down 101 points in early trade on extensive selling

Mumbai: Extending its fall for the second session, the benchmark BSE Sensex fell by another 101 points to trade at 26,451 in early trade today on widespread losses on sustained selling by cautious investors ahead of the Bihar elections result.

The 30-share barometer, which had lost 37.67 points yesterday, fell further by 101.82 points, or 0.38 percent, to 26,451.10.

Also, the NSE Nifty declined by 37.80 points, or 0.47 percent, to 8,002.40.

Major losers that dragged down the key indices included Vedanta Ltd, Sun pharma, Bharti Airtel, Axis Bank, Lupin, Tata steel, RIL, ICICI Bank and Dr Reddy.

Investors are cautious awaiting Bihar assembly polls outcome, as also weaker-than-expected Q2 earning by some bluechip companies impacting market sentiments, brokers said.

In Asian markets, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was up 0.27 percent, while Japan's Nikkei rose by 1.04 percent in early trade today. Shanghai Composite index was up 2.69 percent.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, however, ended 0.28 percent lower in yesterday's trade.