The markets continued to trade lower in late-morning trades with the BSE Sensex having declined 180 points at 17,457 and the Nifty at 5,307, down 52 points.
Earlier in the day, the BSE benchmark index touched the day's high at 17,598 and the day's low at 17,408.
Further, Asian shares eased on Monday as investors turned cautious about riding further on liquidity-driven optimism without seeing more evidence of firmer global growth. The Hang Seng and Nikkei indices have shed nearly 1% each, while the Shanghai Composite index is trading marginally lower.
Back home, on the sectoral front, weakness is being witnessed across all sectors. BSE Bankex, Metal and Capital Goods indices, down nearly 2% each, are leading the losses.
Canara Bank, IndusInd Bank, Union Bank of India and HDFC Bank, down 2-3% each, are the notable losers from among the financials.
From the Metals' space, Jindal Steel & Power, Hindalco Industries, JSW Steel and Hindustan Zinc, down 3-4% each, are the major losers.
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SFK India, BHEL, Punj Lloyd and AIA Engineering, down 1-2% each, are the prominent losers from among the Capital Goods stocks.
Among the Sensex stocks, Jindal Steel is the top loser, down 3% at Rs 573. Other prominent losers include Hindalco Industries, DLF, Hero MotoCorp and BHEL, down 2-3% each.
The gainers from the pack are Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki and Cipla, up nearly 1% each.
Among the individual stocks, Wheels India is trading higher by 4.3% at Rs 531, extending its 35% rally in past six trading days, on announcing the interim dividend plans.“The board of directors of the company will meet on March 15, 2012, to consider and approve interim dividend for the financial year ending March 31, 2012,” the auto parts and equipment makers said in a filing to the stock exchanges.
Kingfisher Airlines has dipped 4% at Rs 23 on reports that the Service Tax department frozen as many as 40 bank accounts of the company for non-payment of dues to the tune of Rs 40 crore.This is the fourth time in the past four months that the service tax department has frozen the bank accounts the Vijay Mallya led UB Group company. Late last month, the income tax department had also frozen the bank accounts for not depositing the TDS
TVS Motor has shed 3% at Rs 44.9 as the Chennai-based two-wheeler maker reported 3% decline in its total vehicle sales in February at 172, 061 units. The company had sold 177,412 units in the same month last year, TVS Motor Company said in a statement.
The overall market breadth is negative as 1,379 stocks have declined against 1,008 advancing ones, on the BSE.