Sensex down 94 points, Nifty falls below 8,600

Shares fell on Monday, retreating from a three-month closing high last week, as investors shunned blue chips a day ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament where key reforms such as land acquisition Bill are expected to be presented. At about 2.15 pm, the BSE 30-share index Sensex was down 0.33 per cent or 94.24 points at 28,369 while the NSE index lost 0.26 per cent or 22 points to 8,587.85. Fall in banking shares weiged on the index with ICICI Bank losing 1.02 per cent, Housing Development Finance Corp 0.87 per cent and Axis Bank down by 1.2 per cent. Consumer goods stocks such as ITC fell 0.5 per cent while Hindustan Unilever shed 1.2 per cent. ACC Ltd fell 2.16 per cent after its quarterly consolidated profit saw an about 45 per cent decline. Federal Bank shares were trading down 7.32 per cent due to weak first-quarter earnings, according to a news agency.