The Sensex was lower by 54 points, while the Nifty dropped 19 points in early trade. Among the losers were Gail, ONGC, Sun Pharma, Kotak Mahindra and Coal India.

Tata Motors was also trading lower ahead of its results to be declared later today. Bhel continued to lose ground for the third day in a row, following a poor set of corporate results.

Software stocks continued to buck the trend with Wipro, HCL Tech and Infosys Technologies among the early gainers. However, TCS shed ground on profit booking.

PSU banking stocks which had rallied substantially through the whole of last week, gave up some ground. Notable losers from the space were Bank of India and Punjab National Bank. Private sector banks also dropped in line with the broad markets with notable losers being ICICI Bank, Kotak Bank and IndusInd Bank.

Rel estate stocks which have been having a good session in trade were trading lower today. Sobha Developers, DB Realty and DLF were among the prominent losers.

Titan Industries continued to grind lower after the Reserve Bank of India said that foreign institutional investors would need prior nod before buying shares in the company.

Wockhardt continued to rally after the UK Regulator okays company to supply, manufacture most products at Kadaiya unit.

Meanwhile, all of the Asian markets were lower in trade with the Shanghai Composite witnessing a cut of as much as 1%.

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