Markets languish in red, Sensex down 250pts

The markets continue to languish in the negative territory owing to expiry pressure. The Sensex has touched a low of 17,886, and is now down 248 points at 17,930.

The BSE Capital Goods index has shed 2.3% at 12,575, and the Auto index has tumbled nearly 2% to 8331.

The market breadh is also fairly negative - out of 2,523 stocks traded, 1,799 have advanced and 632 have declined.

Among the index stocks - ONGC has slumped 3.6% to Rs 261.

Tata Motors, Larsen & Toubro and Mahindra & Mahindra have dropped over 3% each to Rs 1,107, Rs 1,551 and Rs 620.

Tata Power, Jaiprakash Associates, ICICI Bank, Sterlite and Hindalco are the other prominent losers.

Hero Honda however has bucked the trend, and surged over 3% to Rs 1,513. Bharti Airtel has advanced 1.5% to Rs 333.