The frontline benchmark indices are trading low in the late noon session on Monday. Japan’s shut, most other Asian equity markets aren’t doing much, and you can read about the big exception -- China -- here. While here in India, where even before the ballot takes place, a host of worries is raising questions about whether the country’s benchmark stock index can repeat last year’s outperformance. Auto ancillary company Motherson Sumi Systems has reported a 6.7 percent on year growth in consolidated profit to Rs 389.06 crore, driven by global business and operating growth. Profit in corresponding period last year stood at Rs 364.5 crore.

The company posted highest every quarterly consolidated revenue at Rs 16,473 crore for the quarter ended December 2018, which grew by 14.5 percent year-on-year led by global growth.

At 13:39 hours, the SENSEX was trading at 36368.08 down by -178.4 points or by -0.49 per cent and then NSE Nifty was at 10888.15 down by -55.45 points or by -0.51 per cent. The BSE Sensex touched intraday high of 36588.41 and intraday low of 36309.28 The NSE Nifty touched intraday high of 10930.9 and intraday low of 10857.1.

The top gainers of the BSE Sensex were Tata Steel Ltd. (Rs. 475.40,+1.25%), Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (Rs. 2085.00,+1.08%), Infosys Ltd. (Rs. 765.60,+0.76%), Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. (Rs. 1303.00,+0.58%), Coal India Ltd. (Rs. 219.50,+0.43%), among others.

The top losers of the BSE Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (Rs. 661.00,-3.22%), Oil And Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (Rs. 139.40,-2.86%), Bajaj Finance Ltd. (Rs. 2646.65,-2.13%), Hero MotoCorp Ltd. (Rs. 2879.30,-1.81%), Reliance Industries Ltd. (Rs. 1256.25,-1.65%), among others.

Among sectors, BSETECk index was at 7754.89 up by 43.36 points or by 0.56%. Sun TV Network Ltd. (Rs. 574.70,+10.40%), ITI Ltd. (Rs. 97.80,+1.82%), MindTree Ltd. (Rs. 908.45,+1.72%), Oracle Financial Services Software Ltd. (Rs. 3785.95,+1.55%), Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (Rs. 2085.00,+1.08%),. On the flip side, Realty index was at 1741.84 down by -26.82 points or by -1.52%. Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd. (Rs. 64.95,-3.49%), Godrej Industries Ltd. (Rs. 736.60,-3.05%), Sobha Ltd. (Rs. 465.00,-2.16%), Sunteck Realty Ltd. (Rs. 341.30,-1.67%), DLF Ltd. (Rs. 162.05,-1.55%),.

The Market breadth, indicating the overall strength of the market, was weak. On BSE out of total shares traded 2641, shares advanced were 778 while 1711 shares declined and 152 were unchanged.