Markets End in Red

Indian markets witnessed lacklustre move for most part of the day and ended in the negative zone owing to selling pressure in index heavyweights. The Sensex dropped into the negative zone in opening trades on political worries and then failed to recover. Sustained weakness in realty and oil & gas stocks saw the BSE benchmark index drop to a low of 18,694 - down 144 points from the days open. The Sensex finally ended with a loss of 70 points at 18,744. The Nifty ended at 5,632 down 18 points. Political concerns once again rocked the state of Andhra Pradesh with nine MPs resigning to press their demands for a separate state of Telangana. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 1131.72 crore on Monday, taking their total investment value to around Rs 7,762 crore from June 23. Heavyweight, Reliance, declined 2.5% to Rs 846, contributing the most to the index's down move. ITC shed 1.5% to Rs 196.  BSE market breadth was marginally positive. Out of 2,959 stocks traded, 1,502 advanced while 1,312 declined in trades.