Slackness in the markets continued to pressurise the indices, which were trading in a negative range, as the Sensex was quoting at 17,941 down 209 points, while the Nifty was at 5,390 down 57 points.
After touching an intra-day low of 17,890 in noon trades, down 370 points from the day's high of 18,260, the Sensex recovered partially, but it slipped again to trade lower than 200 points, even as the Nifty slipped below the psychologically-sensitive 5,400 level.
Auto stocks Bajaj Auto at Rs 1,370 up 1% and Maruti Suzuki at Rs 1,175 up 0.5% were the top gainers on the benchmark, followed by Tata Steel at Rs 597 up 0.4%.
Amongst the top losers on the Sensex, Reliance Industries declined 4% at Rs 994, BHEL at Rs 1,925 and HDFC at Rs 625 were both off 2% each.
The broader markets fared better than the Sensex, although both, the Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were quoting in the negative at 6,512 and 7,823 respectively.
Losers in the mid-cap arena were Motilal Oswal at Rs 121 down 5%, Shree Global Traders at Rs 235 and Persistent Sysytems at Rs 350 both down 4%.
In the small-cap space, Kolte Patil continued to languish as the top loser at Rs 47 down 6.4%, and Gujarat Apollo at Rs 130 down 6% and Diamond Power Infrastructure at Rs 137 down 5% were the other significant losers.
The Metal index, the only sectoral index in the positive, was flat at 15,331. Gaining stocks on the index were NMDC at Rs 282 up 4%, Welspun Corp at Rs 203 up 2% and SAIL at Rs 161 up 1%.
The Oil & Gas index down nearly 3% was the sectoral loser. RIL was the top loser, while HPCL at Rs 327 down 3% and BPCL at Rs 562 down 2% were the other major gainers.
IT stocks were also beaten down today, as the index slipped 1.4% to 6,000. Losers in this sector were Tech Mahindra at Rs 714 down 3%, HCL Technologies at Rs 448 and Wipro at Rs 435 both down 2%.
