Among the early gainers in trade were the new found favourities, that is the technology stocks with Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services both gaining. Bharti Airtel surged more then 4 per cent after reports suggested a poor response to the 2G auction.

Most of the NSE components were in the red with the prominent losers being Tata Motors, Coal India, Larsen and Toubro, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Coal India, Tata Steel and Tata Power.

PSU banking stocks continued to drift lower with losers from the pack including Allahabad Bank, Andhra Bank, IOB, IDBI Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and Union Bank.

Realty stocks also had a bad day with prominent losers from the space including Godrej properties, HDIL, Sobha Developers and Unitech Ltd.

Cairn India was trading steady after the company said it has begun drilling its first exploration well in four years on the prolific Rajasthan block.

Maruti Suzuki dropped more then 2 per cent after the Reserve Bank of India said foreigner investors cannot buy shares in the company.

Claris Lifesciences gained marginally after the company received an approval from the US FDA for one of its products.

Pharma stocks also came in for some selling pressure today with losers in trade being Divis, Piramal, Ranbaxy and Cipla.

Oil and gas and energy stocks were the worst affected with ONGC, Reliance, BPCL all losing in trade. Meanwhile, markets in Asia were trading lower on fears of the Italian election ouctome. European stocks are called lower in trade today later today.

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