Sensex down 150 points, Nifty below 9,150 as telecom, IT stocks fall

The benchmark indices on Monday continued to trade lower tracking muted trend seen in Asian markets, while back home losses in the stock of Idea Cellular pulled the Nifty index down. 

At 1:30 pm, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading at 29,496, down 152 points, while the broader Nifty50 was ruling at 9,122, down 38 points. 

In the broader market, BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap outperformed the frontline indices to gain 0.2% and 0.3%, respectively.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, turned negative from positive. On the BSE, 1,224 shares declined and 1,199 shares rose. A total of 180