Sensex, Nifty volatile; L&T, ONGC, BHEL on buyers' radar

Key benchmarks remained volatile as market was getting support from capital goods, private banks, FMCG and power stocks whereas the selling continued in technology, auto stocks, Reliance and SBI.

The market has been in a consolidation mode for the third consecutive session, especially after the RBI's rate status quo. The BSE benchmark declined 37 points to 16,859.31 and the NSE benchmark slipped 10 points to 5,110.95.

The Indian rupee was consistently trading below the 56 level since early trade to 56.39 as against the US dollar, down 24 paise.

Also listen to the accompanying audio.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries tanked over 3% as its partner in KG D6 - Niko Resources said total proved plus probable natural gas reserves have fallen almost 51% to 377 billion cubic feet equivalent (bcfe) as it struggles with low reserves at its KG D6 block in India.

Cairn India fell over 2% as crude oil prices have been falling sharply since yesterday after EIA inventory report. However, oil marketing companies like BPCL, HPCL and IOC gained 1-4% on falling oil prices. State-owned oil & gas producer ONGC rallied over 1%.

Country's largest lender State Bank of India dropped 0.6% while its rivals HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank rose 0.3% each.

Top software services exporter TCS tumbled over 2%, but Infosy and Wipro were down just 0.5% each.

Among auto stocks, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Auto declined 0.4-1%.

However, engineering and construction major by sales L&T and state-owned power equipment manufacturer BHEL jumped 1% and 2.65%, respectively.

FMCG majors ITC and HUL gained over 0.5%.

Asian equities stayed in bear grip barring Nikkei. Shanghai fell 1.6% after weak PMI data. Hang Seng, Straits Times, Kospi and Taiwan Weighted went down 0.7-1% whereas Nikkei gained over 1%.