After starting in a green territory, the BSE benchmark index slipped into the red due to the selling pressure in Auto, Metal and FMCG space. This led the Sensex to touch a low of 18,513, down 181 points from the day's start in the morning trades. Thereafter, the index attempted to retrace but failed and slipped further. Currently the Sensex is down 83 points at 18,534 and the Nifty lost 31 points at 5,568.

Meanwhile, the broader markets managed to hold it gains with the smallcap index up 0.3% while the midcap index is flat with a positive bias outperforming the Sensex which is down 0.1%.

Among the sectoral indices, Auto index is down 0.8%followed by Metal, FMCG and Health care which is down 0.1-0.4%. On the other hand, IT index continues to gain, up 0.8% followed by Realty and Power adding 0.4% and 0.6% respectively.

TCS continues to be the top gainer among the Sensex stocks stocks with a 2.5% gain followed by NTPC, Wipro and SBI gaining between 0.5-0.8%.

Among the losers are Cipla, Tata Motors, Hero Honda, Sterlite, Bajaj Auto and Tata Power down 1% each.

The market breadth continues to remain positive. Of the total 2245 stocks traded on the BSE, 1153 advanced while 1005 declined.