Weakness persists; Oil & Gas shares weigh

ONGC, Reliance Industries among top Sensex losers along with TCS, Tata Motors and SBI

Markets continue to trade near the lows of the day thus far as consumer durables, IT and Oil & Gas shares continue to weigh on the index. The Sensex was down 60 points at 18,733 and the Nifty lost seven points to trade at 5,651.

In the broader markets, the smallcap index gave off over 1% nad the midcap index lost 0.7%, both underperforming the BSE benchmark index which was marginally down 0.3%.

Asian shares hovered near 2013 lows and gold stayed close to a one-month high on Friday as Cyprus scrambled to find a solution to its funding crisis and concern over the health of the euro zone mounted.

The MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan inched down 0.3%, nearing the lowest level in three months struck earlier this week. The pan-Asian index was set for a weekly loss of nearly 1.7%.

Japan's Nikkei stock average tumbled 2.4%, after hitting a 4-1/2-year high on Thursday.

Back home, from the sectoral pack, consumer durables index down 2.3% was the top loser followed by Realty, IT, Oil & Gas indices down 0.8-1%. The only exceptions here were the Power and Bankex indices, up nearly 0.2% each.

The top gainers among the Sensex-30 were Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, Hindalco, NTPC, Tata Power, Jindal Steel and Dr Reddys Lab up 1-4%.

Among the losers were Tata Motors, ONGC, TCS, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, SBI and Sun Pharma down 1-2%. Reliance Industries lost 0.5%.

The market breadth was negative. 1839 stocks declined while 776 stocks advanced on the BSE.