Indian indices traded marginally lower on Monday amid weak cement and IT stocks and a mixed day for other Asian markets. The BSE Sensex traded 35.46 points down at 33,307 at 1.07 pm while the NSE Nifty was 8.80 points (0.09%) lower at 10,274.80.
The top gainers on the Sensex were Coal India, National Thermal Power Corporation, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto and Kotak Mahindra. The five biggest losers were ICICI Bank, Cipla, State Bank of India, Infosys and Mahindra & Mahindra.
The biggest gainer at the NSE was GAIL, followed by Tata Power, Yes Bank, Coal India and Bharti Infratel. The stocks which declined the most were Ambuja Cements, ICICI Bank, UltraTech Cements, Cipla and Tech Mahindra. Cement stocks tumbled after the Supreme Court said on Friday said that in addition to Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh should also consider a ban on pet coke and furnace oil, Mint reported.
Other major Asian markets had a mixed day on Monday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed 135 points lower, and the Taiwan index over 37 points. However, the Hong Kong Hang Seng was trading over 48 points up at 12.51 pm Indian Standard Time, and the Shanghai index closed 9.49 points higher. The Indian rupee was trading two paise lower at 65.02 to the United States dollar at 1.20 pm.
