Markets Live: Sensex, Nifty turn negative; SBI, ITC, Infosys drag

The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty gave up most of their early gains, weighed down by Infosys, ITC and State Bank of India.

ICICI Bank too was under pressure. Even the broader markets turned negative. However, the buying interest in oil & gas and capital goods has limited the downside.

The BSE benchmark was down 26 points to 16,453.49 after losing around 200 points from day's high. Meanwhile, the NSE benchmark fell 4.7 points to 4,970.10.

Country's largest lenders State Bank of India and ICICI Bank were down 1% and 0.2%, respectively while HDFC Bank gained 0.7%.

Cigarette major ITC declined more than 1% on the back of profit booking; it had rallied nearly 6% yesterday after removal of ad valorem duty on cigarettes by the government.
 
Auto stocks were sharply under pressure - Top car maker Maruti Suzuki lost 3% and India's largest two-wheeler manufacturer Hero Motocorp was down 2%. Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto slipped over 0.5%.

However, housing finance company HDFC gained 0.5% and FMCG major HUL rose 0.8%.

Capital goods majors Larsen & Toubro and BHEL moved up 0.36% and 1%, respectively. Oil & gas producers Reliance Industries and ONGC advanced 0.5-0.9%.

On the global front, European markets too turned lower after French economic data - industrial production dropped higher than expected at negative 0.9% for March as against consensus estimate of negative 0.5%. France's CAC and Britain's FTSE were down while Germany's DAX gained marginally.