Sensex falls 305 points; banking, financial stocks decline

New Delhi: Markets closed in red on Monday led by decline in banking and financial stocks, amid heavy foreign fund outflow.

The BSE Sensex fell 305.88 points or 0.80 percent to 38,031.13 while the NSE Nifty closed 73.05 points or 0.64 percent to 11,346.20.

Intra-day the 30-share index touched a high of 38,333.52 and a low of  37,890.32 while the Nifty swung between high of 11,398.15 and low of 11,301.25.

Experts opine that the selloff by foreign funds was due to the government's reluctance to tweak foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) income tax surcharge.

HDFC, HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank, HUL, Bajaj Finanace, ITC, SBI, M&M, Powergrid, L&T, Tech Mahindra and IndusInd Bank, falling by upto 5.09 percent. On the other hand, top gainers were Yes Bank, Vedanta, RIL, Asian Paint, Maruti, Sun Pharma, ONGC, TCS, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Heromoto Corp and NTPC, rising upto 9.49 percent.

On a net basis, foreign institutional investors sold equities worth Rs 950.15 crore, while domestic institutional investors purchased shares to the tune of Rs 733.92 crore, provisional data available with stock exchanges showed.

In the previous session on Friday, the BSE Sensex tanked 560.45 points or 1.44 percent to 38,337.01 while the NSE Nifty closed 177.65 points or 1.53 percent to 11,419.25.