Markets End in Red Below 19K

The Sensex closed below the 19,000 mark on the first trading day of the week on the back of selling pressure witnessed in the banking and consumer durables space. The BSE benchmark index closed around the day's low of 18,955, down 269 points from the day's opening. The Nifty closed down 48 points at 5,701 while the Sensex shed 137 points to end the day at 18,998. This is in stark contrast to the Asian and European markets which are trading in the green. Earlier in the day, the markets opened in the green tracking firm Asian peers, but immediately turned negative few minutes after opening as investors sold banking shares ahead of Reserve Bank of India's policy announcement tomorrow. Thereon the downtrend continued through the morning. However, in the late morning trades the markets staged a partial recovery on the back of buying interest seen in the realty and health care space. Market breadth was negative with 1810 in declines as against 1032 advances.