The Sensex was last trading lower by 45 points and the Nifty drifted 40 points lower as some of the heavyweights gave up gains.

Top losers in trade today were the heavyweight banking stocks which saw deep cuts. Yes Bank lost 3.65%, while ICICI Bank lost 2% and State Bank of India was down 1.3 per cent in trade.

Among the Nifty stocks that lost ground were heavyweights, HDFC, ITC and HDFC Bank. Technology stocks were mixed in trade with Tata Consultancy Services rallying in trade, while Infosys which had hit a 52-week high on tuesday lost ground. Wipro and HCL were trading flat today.

Notable gainers once again in trade were the pharma majors including Cipla, Lupin, Sun Pharma and Ranbaxy.

Apart from pharma stocks the other notable gainers were Hindalco and Maruti Suzuki. Bharti Airtel which had rallied sharply on Tuesday following the lowering of spectrum charges continued to gain in trade today. The stock was up 1.5% in early trade.

FMCG stocks came in for some selling pressure with the notable losers being ITC, Dabur and Hindustan Unilever.

Shares in metals were up in trade on hopes of increasing demand for metals, following encouraging data from China. Hindalco, Nalco, NMDC and Orissa Minerals were among the gainers.

In fact, NMDC was up despite reports that IT authorities had slapped a tax notice on the company.

Meanwhile, Asian markets were trading lower after rallying sharply on Tuesday. The Taiwan Weighted, The Hang Sang and the Jakarta Composite were all up in trade.

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