Mumbai: Negative global cues led a benchmark index of the Indian equities markets, the 30-scrip BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex), to make heavy losses during the mid-afternoon trade session on Monday. It was down 226 points or 0.79 percent.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) was also trading in the red during the mid-afternoon trade session. It was lower by 55.50 points or 0.66 percent at 8,549.50 points.

The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 28,525.65 points, was trading at 28,216.29 points (at 1.00 p.m.) in the mid-afternoon trade session, down 225.81 points or 0.79 percent from the previous day\'s close at 28,442.10 points.

The Sensex had touched a high of 28,539.46 points and a low of 28,186.92 points in the intra-day trade so far.

According to Angel Broking, the weakness observed in the Indian markets was due to the negative global cues such as last week\'s sell-off in the Chinese futures, which fell sharply amid concerns about new trading regulations.

The financial situation of the Greece debt crises and its fall-out on the Eurozone economies also concerned the Indian markets which have been seeing a string of disappointing fourth quarterly results.

In Monday\'s trade, healthy buying was observed in healthcare and consumer durables sectors.

However, stocks of automobile, information technology (IT), fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), capital goods, technology, entertainment and media (TECK), metal and oil and gas stocks came under heavy selling pressure.

The BSE S&P automobile index plunged by 249.03 points, followed by IT index which declined by 198.12 points, FMCG index decreased by 166.31 points, capital goods index was receded by 158.58 points, TECK index was lower by 100.53 points, metal index came down by 95.48 points and oil and gas index fell by 73.58 points.

However, the S&P BSE healthcare index gained 90.18 points and consumer durables index was higher by 86.73 points.

Sensex down 226 points; automobile stocks hit