The BSE benchmark Sensex on on Wednesday tumbled by over 213 points due to across-the-board selling, mainly in interest rate sensitive stocks, following weak Asian markets which fell after Moody’s downgraded Japan’s sovereign debt rating. The 30-share index initially touched a high of 16,533.22 but reacted downwards on sluggish Asian trends and remained in the negative rest of the day to settle at 16,284.98 points, showing a fall of 213.49 points, or 1.29 per cent. Besides interest-rate related shares, metal and capital goods, IT counters suffered a heavy setback on selling ahead of the expiry of August contract on Thursday. From / Gulf Today