Sensex below 26,000; RIL down 1.5%

Coal India,TCS, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto and Hindalco among the top losers

Markets slipped over 0.5% in early noon trades as profit taking in some of the front liners like RIL, ICICI Bank and TCS weighed on the indices.

At 1235 hrs, the Sensex was down 162 points at 25,965 and the Nifty slipped 48 points to trade at 7742.

Broader markets too were weak with both the mid and smallcap indices lower by 0.2-0.5%.

Power and Consumer Durables indices up 0.1% each were the only sectoral gains.

Axis Bank, BHEL, Dr Reddys Lab which gained 1-2% were the top gainers among Sensex-30.

Auto names like Hero MotoCorp, M&M and Maruti Suzuki edged higher by 0.4-0.7%.

SBI, Tata Power and Sun Pharma rounded off the gainers list.

The biggest losers of the hour were Coal India, Reliance Industries, TCS, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto and Hindalco down 1-3%.

The market breadth was negative. 1426 stocks declined while 1015 stocks advanced on BSE.

Rupee

The rupee is trading at 60.12/13, little changed versus its previous close of 60.10/11.

USD/INR pair seen in 59.90 to 60.30 range during the day with month-end import demand seen supporting the pair.

Asian Markets

Asian stocks shrugged off a drop in Wall Street and hovered near three-year highs on Monday, with China taking the lead after data showed a robust jump in profits earned by industrial firms in the world's second-largest economy.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.2%, close to a three-year high of 509.23 scaled on Friday.

China's CSI300 jumped 2.3% and the Hang Seng climbed 0.8%. Tokyo's Nikkei, which hit a six-month closing high Friday, was up 0.5%.