 "Nifty hovers around 7,150; Adani Ports surges 5%")
At 12:32 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 123 points at 23,431 and the Nifty50 was down 47 points at 7,117.
The top losers from the Sensex pack are SBI, L&T, Sun Pharma, M&M and Lupin, all falling between 1%-4%.
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Updated at 10:30 am
Markets continued to trade weak after the first hour of trade as investors turned cautious and booked profits after sharp gains in the previous session.
At 10:30am, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 38 points at 23,517 and the Nifty50 was down 17 points at 7,146.
In the broader market, the BSE Midcap index was down nearly 1% while the Smallcap index eased 0.3%.
Market breadth turned negative with 1,058 losers and 842 gainers on the BSE.
BSE Metal index which had emerged as the top gainers in the previous session was the top loser down nearly 1% followed by Capital Goods, Healthcare and Bankex indices.
Financial and IT shares were among the top losers with HDFC, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI down 0.6%-1.2% each.
In the pharma space Sun Pharma witnessed profit taking and was down 0.8% while Lupin eased 0.7%.
Oil shares gained tracking firm global crude oil prices. Reliance Industries, ONGC, Cairn India were up 0.3%-2.8% each.
Adani Ports was the top Sensex gainer up 4.4%. The company reported 26% rise in net profit at Rs 645 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2015 compared with Rs 512 crore for the same quarter last fiscal.
Other Sensex gainers include, Tata Motors and NTPC among others.
Among other shares, Gati has surged 9% to Rs 118 on the BSE in early morning trade after the logistics company said that it is exploring strategies for growth to align with their vision of delivering 1 million packages everyday by 2020.
Shares of Shilpa Medicare surged 5% to Rs 438 on the BSE after a block deal executed on the counter.
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(updated at 9:40am)
Markets pared early gains on profit taking at higher levels after the sharp rebound in the previous session with financial shares leading the decline along with IT and pharma shares.
At 9:40am, the S&P BSE Sensex was down 84 points at 23,470 and the Nifty50 was down 27 points at 7,137.
Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in equities to the tune of Rs 1,312 crore on Monday, as per provisional stock exchange data.
"For the Nifty resistance is seen at 7175 above 7200, 7230 AND 7250 while support is seen at 7128 BELOW 7082, 7046," Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services said in a note.
BSE Power, Oil & Gas indices were the top gainers up 0.7% each followed by Realty, Bankex and Consumer Durables among others. BSE IT, Healthcare and Capital Goods were among the top losers.
In the oil and gas space, ONGC and Reliance Industries was up 0.3%-1.9% each.
Adani Ports was the top Sensex gainer up 3.4% while ITC was up 0.6% contributing the most to the Sensex gains.
Other gainers include, Bharti Airtel and NTPC among others.
Financials were among the top Sensex losers with HDFC, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank down 0.3%-0.5% each.
Other Sensex losers include, Infosys, L&T, Lupin and Sun Pharma among others.
GLOBAL MARKETS
Asian markets were trading higher with Chinese shares gaining the most after a subdued session on Monday. The benchmark Shanghai Composite was up 2.3% while Hang Seng was up 1.7%. Nikkei which had surged nearly 7% in the previous session was trading nearly 1% higher while Straits Times was up 0.6%.
European shares ended higher on Monday with bank and telcom shares leading the gains. Bank stocks gained momentum after the ECB's action to purchase lots of Italian bad bank loans. All the major benchmark indices in the region ended over 2% higher with CAC, DAX and FTSE-100 up 2%-2.9% each.
Meanwhile, US markets were closed on Monday on account of President's Day holiday.
