Selling pressure continued to weigh as the Sensex shed 115 points at 19,749, while the Nifty was at 5,912 down 36 points. The markets were trading negatively, with FII flows reducing after concerns about the price contractions which took place in the markets in the light of poor corporate governance issues in certain mid-sized and small-sized companies, said Morgan Stanley on CNBC TV18.
Top gainers on the Sensex were Hero Honda, which surged 10% at Rs 1,049 after a week-on-week decline of 6% the previous week, as Hero Motors said it will give its Indian partner licences for existing and new products, according to CNBC TV18. Pharma stock Cipla was up 1% at Rs 361, followed by Tata Steel at Rs 665, up marginally less than a percent.
Amongst the losing stocks, ONGC slipped 2% at Rs 1,305, followed by Bharti Airtel at Rs 337, and SBI at Rs 2,720, also down 2%.
The broader indices were in the positive though, with the Mid-cap index at 7,592, trading marginally positive at 24 points, while the Small-cap indicator was up nearly 1% at 9,242.
A majority of the sectoral indices were in negative territory, with only the Auto, Consumer Durables, Metal and Capital Goods indices trading in the green. The BSE Auto was up nearly a percent at 9,964, followed by the Consumer Durables at 6,128, also up nearly 1%, and the Metal index at 16,671 up 51 points.
Auto scrips at the top of the chart were Hero Honda at Rs1,850 up by a whopping 10%, followed by Amtek Auto at Rs 137, and Bharat Forge at Rs 388, both up 2%.
Bankex was the laggard in trade at 12,836 down 1%. The Realty and Teck indices were also down by nearly 1% each, at 2,772 and 3,899 respectively.
Talking about the banking sector, Sandeep Singhal, Co Head - Institutional Equities, Emkay Global, said "Banking sector, because of fantastic growth and valuations, had given one of the best returns. Now the sector is over-owned. Thus, banking stocks may require some more time to consolidate and correct before they reach attractive valuations."
SBI was the top loser at Rs 2,715, while HDFC at Rs 2,166 and Union Bank of India at Rs 324, all down 2%, were amongst the top losers.
