Shares continued to slide on Monday after a choppy trading during the previous week. The 30-share benchmark index of BSE Sensex opened down nearly 50 points amid weak global cues. Asian share markets too opened flat to negative today as Spain’s pain continued to affect the sentiments and some big-ticket corporate earnings announcements too disappointed, signalling the economic recovery was not on track yet.

At 9:37AM BSE SENSEX was at 18647.85 down by 34.46 points or by 0.18 % and then NSE Nifty was at 5666.85 down by 17.4 points or by 0.31 %. The BSE MIDCAP was at 6660.85 down by 10.77 points or by 0.16 %, while the BSE SMLCAP was at 7172.31 up by 2.56 points or by 0.04 %.

The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was weak. On BSE out of total shares traded 1463, shares advanced were 663 while 722 shares declined and 78 were unchanged.

The top losers of the BSE Sensex pack were Tata Motors Ltd. (Rs. 264.95,-1.47%), Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd. (Rs. 99.00,-1.35%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Rs. 686.00,-1.22%), Jindal Steel & Power Ltd. (Rs. 402.15,-1.16%), State Bank of India (Rs. 2231.40,-1.12%), among others.

ITC was weighing down the indices today amid profit booking. The stock had hit 52-week high on Friday after reporting a 21.6 per cent jump in quarterly net profit, largely in line with expectations.

HDFC was also weighing down. The stock was down nearly 0.5 per cent ahead of the earnings announcement today. Banking stocks like Bank of Baroda, Syndicate Bank were also trading lower ahead of the Q2 numbers today.

Gains in IT, Technology and Healthcare stocks were getting offset by the steep decline in FMCG, Metal, Oil & Gas, Banking, and Auto stocks today. Broader markets were also under pressure today. Mid-cap and small-cap stocks too remained under pressure amid waning hopes of rate cut by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) during the upcoming policy review on October 30.

The top gainers of the BSE Sensex pack were Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (Rs. 1315.25,+1.93%), Cipla Ltd. (Rs. 362.10,+0.84%), Hindustan Unilever Ltd. (Rs. 571.00,+0.79%), NTPC Ltd. (Rs. 167.45,+0.69%), Wipro Ltd. (Rs. 346.65,+0.64%), among others.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) topped the buyers’ chart today after Q2 earnings announcement last week. The company had beaten the street’s estimates with better-than-expected 49% year-on-year (yoy) growth in net profit at Rs 3,434 crore for the second quarter ended September 2012 driven by growth across geographies and businesses.

The Asian markets were down as risk sentiment was dented by lacklustre earnings from leading US companies, and a bigger-than-expected fall in exports from Japan, a key driver of the world’s third-biggest economy. Meanwhile, in the Asian region, Japan’s Nikkei was down by 0.81 per cent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index up 0.07 per cent. The US Dow Jones Industrial Average ended 1.52 per cent lower in Friday’s trade.