Sensex drops 107 points as S&P keeps sovereign rating unchanged

Mumbai: The benchmark BSE Sensex fell by 107 points in early trade on Monday, cutting short its seven-day winning streak as investors reduced their bets after Standard & Poor's kept India's sovereign rating unchanged. Negative Asian cues too weighed on sentiment here.

The 30-share Sensex fell 106.92 points, or 0.31 per cent, to trade at 33,572.32. The gauge had rallied 918.80 points in the previous seven sessions. The NSE Nifty dropped 41.65 points or 0.40 per cent to 10,348.05.

IT, banking, oil and gas and FMCG stocks fell in early trade dragging the indices into the negative zone.

Infosys, Adani Ports, Sun Pharma, Power Grid, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, SBI, Kotak Bank, Tata Steel, ITC Ltd, Bajaj Auto, Tata Motors, Coal India, Reliance Industries and TCS fell up to 1.33 per cent. However, ONGC, L&T, Lupin and ICICI Bank were trading in the positive zone.

Sentiment took a hit after Standard & Poor's on Friday kept its sovereign rating for India unchanged at 'BBB-minus' with 'stable' outlook saying vulnerabilities stemming from low per capita income and high government debt balance strong GDP growth, brokers said.

A weak trend in other Asian bourses as investors await the release of key Chinese data later in the week also dampened sentiment here, they said.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.37 per cent, Shanghai's Composite index fell 0.79 per cent while Japan's Nikkei was edged lower by 0.34 per cent in early trade on Monday.

The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended at another record highs on Friday by rising 0.14 per cent.