The Sensex was trading lower by 68 points, while the Nifty was trading lower by 22 points at 7339 points. Capital goods and oil and gas stocks saw some profit booking with prominent Nifty losers being Gas Authority of India Ltd, ONGC and Bharat Heavy Electricals.

Banking stocks which have been in the limelight recently also saw some profit booking. Canara Bank, Punjab National Bank and Bank of India saw sharp cuts. Private sector banks also dropped with losers being IndusInd Bank, Kotak and ICICI Bank.

Winners from the Nifty pack were from the IT space with HCL Tech, Infosys, Wipro and Tata Consultancy among the gainers, as investors once again shifted attention to defensive stocks.

The mid cap space saw deep cuts with India Cements dropping as much as 5 per cent as the company reported higher than expected losses in its quarterly performance. Other mid cap stocks that saw heavy profit booking were Hindustan Zinc and Union Bank of India.

Pharma major Wockhardt dropped more than 6 per cent, after the company's quarterly performance disappointed the street.

Real estate stocks also fell in line with the broader markets with notable losers being Godrej Properties, Unitech and Anant Raj Industries.

There was some buying in defensive pharma stocks with winners being Dr Reddy's Labs, Sun Pharma and Cipla.
Asian markets were trading mixed with the Hong Kong's Hang Sang and the Chinese Shanghai Composite trading lower, with Singapore's Strait Times and the Taiwan Weighted trading higher.

GoodReturns.in