Sensex Closes 219 Points Lower, Nifty Settles Below 10,800: 10 Points

Thirty five stocks on the 50-scrip Nifty index finished in the negative zone

Thirty five shares on the 50-scrip Nifty index finished in the negative zone. Other laggards included Coal India, Larsen & Toubro and PowerGrid, finishing with losses of around 2 per cent each.
Nifty Bank, the NSE's sub-index of banking stocks, settled 0.6 per cent lower. ICICI Bank shares settled nearly 4 per cent lower. Among other banking stocks, SBI, Bank of Baroda, PNB and Axis Bank ended with losses between 1.7 per cent and 4 per cent.
Tata Motors was the top percentage loser on both the indices. Tata Motors DVR finished 7.6 per cent lower.
“Markets edged lower in a slow grind with banks, pharma, metals and autos under pressure. The markets were making amends for the wrong move on Friday, in which the Nifty had surged on the OPEC decision to increase production by a million barrels a day, without realising that crude was jumping higher,"VK Sharma, Head - Private Client Group & Capital Markets Strategy, HDFC Securities.
US President Donald Trump on Friday warned of imposition of a 20 per cent tariff on all imports of European Union-assembled cars. Analysts expect vehicles of Britain's biggest automaker Jaguar Land Rover, which is also Tata Motors' largest business, exported to the US to take a big hit if Mr Trump imposes tariffs.
Among other auto stocks, Maruti Suzuki India declined 0.9 per cent, Hero MotoCorp 1.6 per cent and Ashok Leyland 3.3 per cent.
However, some buying witnessed in IT stocks capped the downside in the markets. The Nifty IT index closed 0.6 per cent higher. Infosys rose 2 per cent and was the top gainer on the 30-scrip BSE benchmark Sensex. TCS, Tech Mahindra and HCL Tech finished with mid gains.
A Wall Street Journal report on Sunday said the US plans curbs on Chinese investment in American tech firms, thus triggering a fall in Asian shares.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.25 per cent while Japan's Nikkei lost 0.4 per cent.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 1,343.44 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1,105.76 crore on Friday, according to provisional data from the NSE.

(With agency inputs)