Sensex down 103 points in early trade, Nifty dips below 7,900

Mumbai: Falling for the second straight session, the benchmark BSE Sensex dropped by another 103 points, while the NSE Nifty cracked the 7,900-mark in early trade on Thursday on sustained selling by funds and retail investors amid sluggish Asian cues.

The 30-share index was trading down by 103.16 points, or 0.39 percent, to 26,014.69 with stocks of metal, FMCG, PSU, auto, healthcare, consumer durables and banking sectors leading the fall. The gauge lost 51.56 points in the previous session.

On similar lines, the National Stock Exchange Nifty dipped below the 7,900-level by falling 36.90 points, or 0.46 percent, to 7,894.45.

Brokers said selling by participants in recent gainers and a weak trend in other Asian markets, tracking overnight sell-off in the US markets on plummeting oil prices mainly dampened the sentiment.

Besides, manufacturing PMI, which fell to a 25-month low of 50.3 in November also added to the negative bias, they said.

Among other Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei moved down by 0.22 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.62 percent in early trade today. Shanghai composite index shed 0.32 percent.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 0.89 percent lower in yesterday's trade.