Negative opening of the European equities further weighed on the sentiments. Weakness in sectors like realty, consumer durables, bankex, metal, power and PSU dragged the markets. Major heavyweight losers - SBI, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, HDFC, RIL, Sterlite and Tata Steel.
European stock markets drifted lower, as investors await Europe economic data.
All the sectors are trading lower, barring BSE IT up by 0.83%. Losers - BSE Realty down by 5.42%, BSE CD down by 4.26% and BSE Metal down by 3.84%.
At 2.41 pm, the Sensex was trading at 18204, 230 points lower and the Nifty was trading at 5522, down by 86 points.