Markets continued to remain muted throught the day on back of selling pressure in Oil & Gas, IT stocks and weak cues from Europe. The Sensex has fallen by 146 points to 20,858, and the NSE Nifty has dipped 26 points at 6277.
Asian markets ended mostly higher as commodities continued to have a good run after the annoucement of quantitative easing two by the Federal Reserve last week. Japan's Nikkei 225 surged to three month and ended up 1.1% at 9,732.92 on back of strengthening dollar and weaking Yen. South Korea's Seoul Composite rose 0.2% while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index surged 0.4% and China's Shanghai Composite was up 1%.
Markets in Europe were leading the losses in early trades, FTSE 100 and DAX were trading marginally lower, down 0.1% and CAC40 dipped 0.5% as earnings flow reduced and investors squared-off poistions in defensive shares.
From the oil and gas space, BPCL and ONGC continue to lead the losses, down 3.2% and 2.3% each.
From the IT space, Infosys has fallen 1.9%, followed by HCL Technologies, down 1.7% and Wipro, down 1.2%.
Top losers on the Nifty are Power Grid, down 3.5%, followed by ICICI Bank, down 2.3% and HDFC Banl, down 1.8%.
Prominent gainers on Nifty, Ambuja Cements, up 7.9%, followed by JP Associates, up 4.4% and Reliance Power, up 4.2%.