Mumbai: The S&P BSE benchmark Sensex trimmed its early gains and slipped lower by 40 points in the morning trade Tuesday on persistent selling mainly in refinery counter on the back of lower global cues in spite of buying in realty and healthcare stocks.
Selling by foreign funds also affected the market sentiment. Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 74.59 crore yesterday as per the provisional data issued by stock exchanges.
The Sensex resumed higher at 26,854.90 and hovered in a range of 26,861.29 and 26,765.87 before quoting at 26,776.99 at 1000hrs, showing a loss of 39.57 points or 0.15 percent from its last close.
The NSE 50-share Nifty also moved down by 13.20 points, or 0.16 percent, to 8,028.80 at 1000hrs.
Major losers were ONGC (1.26 percent), Tata Motors (1.00 percent), HDFC (0.84 percent), SSLT (0.79 percent), Axis Bank (0.56 percent) and Gail (0.53 percent).
However, Dr Reddy Lab rose by 1.74 percent, Sunpharma 1.64 percent, Wipro 1.11 percent, Hindalco 0.67 percent and BHEL 0.57 percent.
Asian stocks declined in their early trade ahead of the start of a Federal Reserve's two-day policy meeting today.
Key benchmark indices in Singapore, Taiwan and Japan fell by 0.1 percent to 0.56 percent, while indices in China and South Korea rose 0.08 percent to 0.39 percent.
US stocks closed mostly lower yesterday with losses led by technology and small-cap stocks as investors continued to unload riskier position ahead of this week's pivotal Federal Reserve policy meeting.
