)
Markets continued to trade lower and dipped to the day's low in late-noorn deals. Selling pressure in oil and auto shares took the Sensex to as low of 19,544. The index was now down 204 points or 1% at 19,557.
The overall HSBC manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI), which gauges business activity in Indian factories but not its utilities, sank to 50.1 in May from 51 in April, and was the third straight monthly fall.
BSE consumer durables index shed 2% at 7,546. BSE oil & gas index dropped 1.8%, followed by power and capital goods. On the other hand, BSE IT index managed to hold on to gains and traded up 0.7% at 6,111.
In line with the equity market, rupee washed out initial gains against the US dollar and was quoted lower by 6 paise to 56.56 per dollar on fresh dollar demand from importers.
Shares of Maruti Suzuki were down 3% at Rs 1,750 in early trades after the company on Saturday announced that total sales in May 2013 were down 14% compared to the same month last year. The country's largest car-maker reported 14.4% decline in total sales in May this year at 84,677 units compared with sales of 98,884 units in May 2012.
Shares of Infosys surged over 4.5% at Rs 2518 after the board on Saturday appointed NR Naryana Murthy as executive chairmacn for a period of five years. The reason for the appointment of Murthy seven years after he gave up his executive post and nearly two years after he retired as non-executive chairman is obvious, the software major has been grappling with a string of disappointing results and loss in market share.
