Sensex falls for 8th session; ONGC down ahead of Q3 nos

Key equity benchmarks closed yet another listless trade on a flat note. The BSE Sensex fell on Monday for an eighth consecutive session to mark its longest losing streak since May 2011 as ONGC retreated ahead of its quarterly results, while financial stocks fell on concerns about slowing economic growth at a time of sticky inflation.

Oil and Natural Gas Corp fell 1.66 percent ahead of its October-December results due later in the day. Housing Development Finance Corp ended down 1 percent.

The BSE Sensex fell 0.12 percent, marking its lowest close since December 31, 2012. The 50-share Nifty ended down 0.1 percent.

Shares of midcap IT firm Hexaware rallied over 3% after better than expected guidance for 2013.

TV Today jumped over 4 percent after strong numbers in Q3. Tata Power bounced back despite posting a surprise loss of Rs 329 crore.

Emami rallied 3 percent after good numbers in Q3

Healthcare stocks on buyers' radar; Cipla topped the buying list, rising 3.6% while DRL up 2 percent

Tata Motors and HUL gained nearly 2 percent while Sterlite and Hindalco jumped 2 percent each.

However, ITC, HDFC, L&T, ICICI Bank, Bharti and TCS were down 0.6-1.6 percent.

Monday market struggles to find a firm footing. Some amount of consolidation though was expected as the street awaits key macroeconomic data this week.

It was flat trading day with a negative bias for the market; the Nifty was struggling to hold 5900 as commodities, select rate sensitives dragged. European markets too opened mixed with negative bias.

The Sensex was down 9.66 points or 0.05% at 19475.11, while the Nifty lost 3.80 points or 0.06% at 5899.70.

Top gainers on the Sensex are Cipla (up 3.6%), Dr Reddy Labs (up 2.3%) and HUL (up 2%). On the losing side are ONGC (ahead of its third quarter earnings), Bharti Airtel and Maruti Suzuki shedding around 1.5%.

SKS Micro soared up 10% after the company concluded two microfinance securitisation transactions aggregating to Rs 390 crore.

News from auto space is discouraging though. According to SIAM, car sales crashed 12.4% in January to 1.73 lakh units. SIAM says that auto industry will miss all growth forecast projections for FY13. Leaving Tata Motors, other auto majors like Bajaj Auto, Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti and Hero MotoCorp are on the sellers' radar today.

Meanwhile, experts are wary of Indian market as it is poised for further fall. Global guru, Marc Faber is cautious on equities . According to him, a 10% correction is on cards as the market looks overheated now.

With Nifty falling breaking the 5900 for the first time in the 2013, experts say market is getting into a zone of sell-on-rise rather than buying-on-dips. The Nifty closed at the edge of 5900 on Friday, and failed to rebound as exteremly poor third quarter numbers kept sentiment down.

At 11 AM, the Sensex was down 27.01 points at 19457.76, and the Nifty fell 11.20 points to 5892.30.

IT sector continues to trade in the green buoyed by Hexaware results. Infosys and Wipro were the top gainers on the Sensex with sub 1 percent gains; TCS was trading marginally in the red. Top gainers include Cipla, Dr Reddy's Tata Motors, Sterlite and HUL.

Top losers at this hour include IDFC (down 2.7 percent), Bharti Airtel (-2 percent), ITC (-1.5 percent), ACC (1.6 percent), Maruti Suzuki (-1.25 percent) and ONGC (-1.5 percent).

The mood in the stock market continues to remain subdued Monday despite the fact that foreign institutional investors poured over USD 7 billion in the India since the beginning of 2013. Benchmark indices opened in the green with support from select Pharma, Bank and IT stocks; but began losing ground soon after. Midcap index slipped into the red after a positive opening, weighed down by third quarter numbers.

MCX-SX, India's third full-fledged equity bourse after BSE and NSE, will also commence trading today with its 40-stock Index named SX40.

At 09.21 AM, the Sensex was down 2.38 points at 19482.39, and the Nifty was trading down 6 points at 5897.50.

Dr Reddy's, Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, Wipro, Cipla, Axis Bank and Infosys helped bourses but Bharti, ITC, Coal India, Tata Steel were pulling down the market. The entire cement pack too remained under pressure.

IT sector continues to trade in the green buoyed by Hexaware results which opened up 2.4 percent. Infosys and Wipro were the top gainers on the Sensex with sub 1 percent gains; TCS was trading marginally in the red.

In the midcap segment, Gillette India lost 10.17 percent. Bharat Forge was down 4 percent followed by Page Industries, BGR Energy and Birla Copr - all of which were down over 2 percent.