Volatile Sensex trades lower; SBI, L&T, Cairn most active

The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were trading marginally lower amid volatility in afternoon trade due to fall in ICICI Bank and Reliance Industries. TCS, ONGC and Tata Motors too were down. European markets opened flat after a sharp spike on Friday due to a surprise deal by European Union leaders to solve ongoing debt crisis.

The BSE benchmark declined 61.65 points to 17,368.33 and the NSE benchmark was down 14.60 points at 5,264.30. Indian rupee too depreciated by 25 paise to 55.86 against the US dollar.

Country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank tanked 1.4% while its rivals State Bank of India and HDFC Bank went up 0.4%.

Oil & gas producers Reliance Industries and ONGC were down 0.7-1.3% while Cairn India moved up 1.7%.

Top software services exporter TCS slipped 1%. Two-wheeler majors Hero Motocorp and Bajaj Auto went down 1% each.

Private steel and power producer Jindal Steel topped the selling list, falling nearly 3%.

However, housing finance company HDFC rose 0.6% and top telecom operator Bharti Airtel gained 0.7%.

India's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki climbed 1% after its good sales numbers in June and state-owned power equipment manufacturer BHEL went up 0.5%.

The broader markets were up more than 0.5% as advancing shares outnumbered declining by 1542 to 948 on the BSE.

Most active shares on exchanges were Adani Enterprises, SBI, Cairn India, L&T, Asian Paints and ICICI Bank.