Markets continue to trade with a negative bias

Markets are trading in the negative in the early afternoon trades with the Sensex down 70 points at 15,384 and the Nifty losing 28 points at 4,596. The main draggers of the benchmark index, Sensex are Reliance Industries and HDFC accounting to a loss of 54 points.

Among the sectoral indices, Oil&Gas and Realty indices, down 1% each are the top losers. On the other hand, the PSU index has added nearly 1% in the afternoon deals. Health Care and IT indices are the other gainers, up 0.4% each.

Infosys, Coal India and BHEL adding between 0.7-0.8% are the top gainers among the Sensex stocks. On the other hand, the notable losers are RIL, Jindal Steel, DLF and Tata Steel down 2% each.

Among other stocks, Hindalco Industries plunged 3.5% to Rs 112, its lowest level since September 8, 2009, on the National Stock Exchange, after the Bombay High Court dismissed the company’s plea against the tax department over a tax outgo of nearly Rs 1,200 crore.

Also, the country's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki India reported a decline in its sales for the seventh consecutive month with the firm today reporting 7.1% fall in December last year to 92,161 units.

On the macro front, India's November exports rose an annual 3.87% to $22.3 billion , while imports for the month rose 24.55% to $35.9 billion, the government said in a statement on Monday.India's trade deficit in November was at $13.6 billion added the statement.

The overall market breadth is negative as 1,451 stocks have declined against 1327 advancing ones, on the BSE.