Profit-booking in heavyweights amidst a stiffly instable session led the indices into the negative zone in post-noon trades. On the global front, European markets saw a low opening with two of the three benchmarks in the green with marginal gains.

Back home, realty, consumer durables, technology and power sectors witnessed selling pressure, while auto, banking and metal stocks were in demand at this point in time.

In economy news, the government is considering taxing the outsourced business by large companies to small and medium sized firms (SMEs). Generally it is the SMEs, which undertake most of the actual manufacturing for large companies and model works for both the partners.

Such small enterprises may now have to pay upfront tax of around 2% to for the job as the government is planning tax deducted at source for large companies outsourcing work. The tax, by nature, will also be outsourced by big manufacturers to the SMEs.

The domestic auto ancillary industry is not charged up about the fiscal stimulus package contending that there will not be any immediate relief from it. The industry feels that it will probably see any benefits of the package only after four to six months.

In the meantime, the 30-share BSE Sensex was trading at the day’s low at 10,211.17, down 64.43 points or 0.63%. The index touched an intra-day high of 10,386.06.

The broader S&P CNX Nifty was down 36.95 points or 1.18% at 3084.50. The index touched a high of 3141.80 and a low of 3079.15.

The market breadth was balanced with 1188 advances versus 1191 declines on the BSE. The breadth on the Nifty was negative with 19 advances compared to 31 declines.

The BSE Mid-cap index was down 0.42% while the BSE Small-cap index declined 0.12%.

Infrastructure engineering and construction company Punj Lloyd was trading with gains on receipt of a Rs 264 crore order from the Airports Authority of India for civil works related to the construction of a new airport at Sikkim. The stock gained 3.20 points or 2.05% and was trading at Rs 159.60 per share on the BSE.

Maytas Infra was trading in the green on news that the company has bagged a Rs 110 crore contract from Southern Railway. The stock added 5.90 points or 3.68% at Rs 166.40 a piece on the BSE.

The Sensex toppers were led by Grasim Industries up 6.31%, Satyam Computer up 5.15%, M&M up 4.38%, ACC up 4.16% and HDFC up 3.38%.

The top losers on the Sensex were Reliance Communications down 5.80%, Bharti Airtel down 4.46%, Tata Power down 4.35%, DLF down 4.07% and Reliance Infra down 3.55%.

The star performers on the Nifty were Grasim up 6.10%, Satyam up 5%, M&M up 4.64%, Ambuja Cement up 4.42% and BPCL up 3.94%.

The draggers of the index were Reliance Communications down 6.77%, DLF down 4.48%, Bharti Airtel down 4.46%, Tata Power down 4.43% and Reliance Infra down 4.15%.

The top gainers in the sectoral space on the BSE were Auto up 0.65%, Metal up 0.46%, Bankex up 0.22% and HealthCare up 0.20%.

The top losers in the sectoral segment were Realty down 3.28%, Consumer Durables down 2.93%, TECk down 2.50%, Power down 1.63% and IT down 1.05%.

European markets were trading with marginal gains in early trades. FTSE 100 was up 0.16%, DAX gained 0.21% while CAC was down 0.33%.

Asian gauges were also subdued towards the end of the session. Shanghai Composite was up 3%, Nikkei 225 gained 0.42%, Seoul Composite rose 1.76% and Taiwan Weighted advanced 0.62%.

Whereas, Hang Seng and Straits Times were in the red, down 0.35% and 0.34% respectively.