Nifty erases gains; SBI, HDFC, Tata Motors under pressure

Indian equity benchmarks erased morning gains amid choppy trade, weighed down by SBI, Reliance Industries and ICICI Bank. European markets like France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE fell 0.2-0.4 percent on uncertainties over Greece.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was down 0.87 point to 18,470.5 and the 50-share NSE Nifty fell 10 points to 5,621.20.

Country's largest lenders State Bank of India and ICICI Bank extended losses to 1.5 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively. Housing finance company HDFC dropped over 1 percent.

Commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors plunged 1.7 percent while top car maker Maruti Suzuki was down 1.2 percent.

Private oil & gas producer Reliance Industries and top software services exporter TCS wiped out gains, falling 0.2 percent each.

Telecom major Bharti Airtel surged over 4 percent on upgrade reports by brokerages. Software services exporter Infosys rallied over 3 percent.

Shares of Dr Reddy's Labs and Jindal Steel gained 2.5 percent each while ONGC rose 1.8 percent.

Most active shares on exchanges were United Spirits, Tata Coffee, L&T Finance, SBI, United Breweries, Infosys and Bharti Airtel.

In the second line shares, Tata Coffee spiked 14 percent. Strides Arcolab, Apollo Hospital, Motilal Oswal and Amtek India were up 5-6 percent whereas Tuni Textile, JK Bank, Biocon, Responsive Industries and Bajaj Hindusthan lost 3-5 percent.