Sensex closes in negative territory; bank stocks fall

A benchmark index of the Indian equities markets closed Monday's trade flat -- down 42.29 points or 0.21 percent -- as bank and metal stocks fell.

The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 20,429.16 points, ended the day at 20,334.27 points -- down 42.29 points or 0.21 percent from its previous day close at 20,376.56 points.

The Sensex hit a high of 20,434.50 points and low of 20,312.21 points intra-day.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed 0.16 percent or 9.75 points lower at 6,053.45 points.

Among the sectoral indices of the BSE, bank, metal and entertainment, technology and media (TECk) stocks decline. While consumer durables, capital goods and oil and gas scrip ended in the positive territory.

The BSE bank index was down 62.54 points, while the metal index fell 46.90 points and TECk index slipped 42.04 points. However, the consumer durables index was up 88.55 points, followed by capital goods index, up 56.28 points and oil and gas index, up 56.01 points.

DrReddys Lab was the biggest Sensex gainer -- surging 2.10 percent at Rs.2,686.45. Sun Pharma, up 1.68 percent at Rs.611.40; Maruti Suzuki, up 1.41 percent at Rs.1,688.95; Larsen and Toubro (L&T), up 1.27 percent at Rs.994.35; and ONGC, up 1.02 percent at Rs.272 were among the prominent Sensex gainers.

Sixteen of the 30 Sensex scrips closed in the red. These included Bharti Airtel, down 2.57 percent at Rs.397.40; Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), down 2.32 percent at Rs.2,093.70; Hindustan Unilever, down 2.22 percent at Rs.564.85; HDFC, down 2.21 percent at Rs.766.20; and Gail India, down 1.67 percent at Rs.350.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 1.77 percent up, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.27 percent. China's Shanghai Composite Index, gained by 2.03 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.08 percent up. Germany's DAX Index was higher by 0.24 percent while the French CAC 40 Index was up 0.30 percent.