The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes edged lower on Monday paced by losses in auto, metal, pharma and real estate shares. The Sensex fell as much as 326 points and Nifty 50 index touched and intraday low of 14,321.90. However, buying in HDFC Bank, after it reported better than expected December quarter earnings, helped benchmarks recover partially from intraday lows.
As of 9:45 am, the Sensex was down 198 points at 48,836 and Nifty 50 index fell 82 points to 14,352.
Nine of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty Metal index's 2.5 per cent decline. Nifty Media, Pharma, Realty and Auto indexes also fell over 2 per cent.
On the other hand, a few banking shares were witnessing buying interest.
Mid- and small-cap shares were also facing selling pressure as Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indexes fell around 2 per cent.
Among the individual shares, Dewan Housing Finance Corporation rose 5 per cent after the company's creditors voted in favour of Rs 37,250 crore takeover bid submitted by the Piramal Group for the troubled "shadow" lender on Friday.
Forty two out of 50 shares in the Nifty 50 basket were trading lower led by Hindalco's 4.2 per cent fall. Bajaj Finserv, Coal India, Tata Steel, ONGC, Shree Cements, Hero MotoCorp, Tata Motors, Power Grid, IndusInd Bank and Bajaj Finance also fell between 3-4 per cent.
On the flipside, UPL, HDFC Bank, Wipro, ICICI Bank and HCL Technologies were among the notable gainers.
The overall market breadth was bearish as 1,656 shares were declining while 722 were advancing on the BSE.
