Mumbai, Aug 12 The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) benchmark Sensex fell by almost 197 points in early trade on Wednesday.

The 30-share index moved down by 196.58 points, or 1.21 per cent to 14,878.01 points after stocks of auto, metals and realty sectors suffered the most.

The Nifty index on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) fell by 62.60 points.

Mahindra and Mahindra was down by 2.13 per cent at Rs 768.25, Maruti Suzuki 0.61 per cent at Rs 1,284 and Tata Motors 1.41 per cent at Rs 422.20.

The metal index on the BSE was down 1.4 per cent. In the metal space, Sterlite, Hindalco and Nalco were the major losers.

Other losers were Reliance Industries down by 0.65 per cent to Rs 1,986.45, Infosys Technologies by 1.42 per cent to Rs 2,052 and Rcom by 2.03 per cent at Rs 248.55. (ANI)