Indian stocks open lower

Indian main stock index Sensex opened at 16,297.03 points Monday, 74.48 points or 0.45 percent lower from previous close of 16,371.51 on global cues. Oil and gas, automobile, banking and technological sector decreased 1.08 percent, 0.98 percent, 0.96 percent and 0.88 percent, respectively. Tata Motors, Reliance Industries, telecom operator Bharti Airtel and consumer goods maker ITC lost 2.01 percent, 1.94 percent, 1.76 percent and 1.56 percent. Meanwhile, engineering company Larsen and Toubro, drug maker CIPLA and property developer Jaiprakash Associates gained 1.16 percent, 0.69 percent and 0.16 percent. Sensex is the common name for the Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index. It consists of the 30 largest and most actively traded stocks, representative of various sectors, on the Bombay Stock Exchange.