Live Market Updates: Sensex falls 100 pts; SAIL OFS subscribed 39%

Key equity benchmarks continued to trade flat. At 13.50 PM, the Sensex was down 100 points at 18677 and the Nifty fell 23 points to 5635. About 782 shares advanced, 1885 shares declined and 855 shares remained unchanged.

Steel Authority of India (SAIL) OFS received bids for 9.4 crore shares (39.21%) till 1:35 pm. The floor price for the OFS was fixed at Rs 63 a share. It will divest nearly 6% through the offer for sale today. The stock price is flat.

Bajaj Auto was the top gainer on the Sensex, rising 3.86% followed by Hero Motocorp up 2.27%. NTPC (1.67 percent), Tata Power (1.64 percent) and Hindalco (1.42%) were the other gainers.

On the flip side, Tata Group stocks fell more than 1.5 percent. Tata Motors was the top loser on the Sensex, down 2.5% followed by TCS (1.74%) and Tata Steell (1.71%). ONGC and ICICI Bank also fell more than a percent each.

Shares of Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri (TBZ) plunged 12 percent in the afternoon trade after HSBC Global Investment Funds sold 12.7 lakh shares of the jewellery retail company for about Rs 32 crore.

Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei shed 2.4 percent on concerns that Cyprus may be forced to exit the euro zone. The Nikkei ended 297.16 points lower at 12,338.53, retreating from 12,650.26 hit on Thursday, its highest intraday level since early September 2008.