Sensex fails to maintain early momentum; down 7pts

The BSE Sensex today failed to maintain initial gains and declined by seven points in late morning deals due to mild profit booking in consumer durables, healthcare, capital goods and banking sectors, following overnight losses in the US market.
US stocks fell yesterday after a Federal Reserve official tipped a pullback in the central bank's easing programmes which could come as soon as this summer.
The BSE-30 share index, Sensex, resumed higher at 20,267.60 and firmed up further to 20,308.97 points on persistent buying in select counters.
However, it declined afterwards to 20,203.76 before quoting 20,240.75 points at 1030 hours.

It showed a net loss of 6.58 points of 0.03 per cent from its last close.
The NSE 50-share barometer Nifty also moved down by 3.80 points or 0.05 per cent to 6,166.10 at 1030 hours.

Major losers were Dr Reddy's Lab (1.83 per cent), Bharti Airtel (1.24 per cent), Gail India (1.23 per cent), HDFC Bank (1.11 per cent) and HDFC (0.88 per cent).
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1,070.33 crore yesterday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
Asian stocks edged higher in their early trade.
Key benchmark indices in China, Indonesia, Japan and Taiwan were up 0.09 to 0.53 per cent.

Singapore's Straits Times fell 0.09 per cent.
Stock markets in Hong Kong and South Korean were closed for holidays.