Sensex down 320 points, auto stocks slump

New Delhi: The Indian equity market declined on Wednesday with the S&P BSE Sensex losing over 300 points during the afternoon session.

The weakness in the domestic indices came on the back of a similar trend in the Asian markets along with a sharp decline in rupee and a slowdown in the manufacturing PMI data, analysts said.

Most sectoral indices traded in the negative, led by auto, metal and banking stocks. The S&P BSE auto index lost 534.70 points on weak December auto sale figures.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange also declined over 100 points to trade around 10,800 points.

At 1.20 p.m., the Nifty50 traded at 10,807.35, lower by 102.75 points or 0.94 per cent from the previous close of 10,910.10 points.

The Sensex, which had opened at 36,198.13, traded at 35,932.66 points, lower by 321.91 points or 0.89 per cent from the previous close of 36,254.57 points.

So far, it touched an intra-day high of 36,236.70 and a low of 35,866.30 points.

The Indian currency slumped 45 paise on Tuesday to trade at 69.89 per dollar (around 1.20 p.m.), against the previous close of 69.45 per dollar.

Also, the decline in the Nikkei Manufacturing Purchasing Managers` Index released during the day subdued the market sentiments. The index declined to 53.2 in December, from 54 in November.