Markets end near day's low

Markets extended losses in late-noon trades on weakness in realty, IT and metal sectors. Negative cues from global markets also took the bourses lower.

The Sensex touched a low of 18,679 towards the end of the day, and finally ended at 18,721 - down 137 points.

Nifty ended down 44 points at 5,616.

Asian markets were in red on a higher-than-expected unemployment data from the US. Hang Seng slipped 1.6% to 22,347. Nikkei was down 0.7% at 10,069.

Straits Times, Seoul Composite and Taiwan Weighted was down around 1% each.

The earnings season has begun with HDFC announcing its quarterly numbers on Friday.

The housing mortgage lender reported a 22% y-o-y growth in net profit to Rs 844.53 crore for the April-June quarter of the current fiscal.

The stock was down around 0.6% at Rs 708.

The next result to watch out for is IT bellweather, Infosys, which is set to come out on Tuesday. The stock declined 2% at Rs 2,919 - the biggest dragger in the benchmark. other IT stocks - TCS and Wipro dropped 1-2% each.

In other news, the government has set a target of merchandise exports of $300 billion in the fiscal year through March 2012, after shipments topped the government's estimate and rose to a record high of $245.9 billion last year.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Friday, 8 July 2011, said the government's revenue collections so far have been healthy and he doesn't expect any slippage in the fiscal year target of Rs 7.9

lakh crore.

Metal stocks continued to slip, extending Friday's fall due to the Mining Bill.

The Bill, which calls for miners to give to local communities an amount equivalent to royalties so as to compensate people displaced by such projects, will now go to the Cabinet for approval.

BSE metal index was down 1.5% at 14,733.

Hindalco shed 4.5% after the Environmen Ministry denied permission for the company's mining activity in the Mahan block of the Singrauli coalfield in Madhya Pradesh. Tata Steel was down 1% at Rs 589. Jindal Steel and NTPC also ended in red.

Agriculture stocks were trading higher ahead of the empowered group of ministers meet on foodgrains. The EGoM headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will meet later today to consider the proposal to export 3-million tonnes of wheat and rice to ease foodgrain storage problems. KRBL, Kohinoor Foods, ADF Foods and LT Foods dropped 1-3% each.

Meanwhile, the FMCG index gained 0.5% a 4,061, buoyed by heavyweight - ITC.

BSE auto index ended flat at 9,097 after Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers said that the industry is expected to grow 11-13% in FY12.

Foreign Institutional Investors have continued with their buying spree.

Since July 4,2011 FIIs have invested around Rs 3,077 crore in Indian markets.

The market breadth was negative with 1,560 stocks declining and 1,291 stocks advancing in trades today.