Profit booking in frontline stocks continues to drag the markets lower.

PSU, real estate, consumer durables and metal stocks were in limelight, whereas auto, capital goods and FMCG fell marginally.

However, the mid-cap and the small-cap stocks continue to remain in demand. BSE Midcap and Smallcap index gained 2.99% and 6.13% respectively.

For the week ended May 9, 2009, the country's benchmark wholesale price index (WPI), annual inflation increased by 12 basis points to 0.60% as against 0.48% during the last week.

Signals from the Asian markets were also not that encouraging, the Nikkei index in Japan was down 80.49 points, Hang Seng index in Hong King was down by 1.14% and Shanghai Composite declined 1.54%.

Today, the 30-share index, BSE Sensex belled the day with a loss of 17.28 points at 14,043.38.

At 12.55 p. m., the 30-share index Sensex lost 84.36 points at 13,976.30. It touched a high of 14,043.38 and a low of 13,848.00.

In the meantime, the broad based Nifty was up by 26.30 points at 4,296.60, after hitting a high of 4,309.30 and a low of 4,230.70.

The overall breadth of the market was sharply positive as it saw 2,278 advancements as against 303 declinations.

The top gainers in the 30-share index included ONGC, which increased 7.23%, Ranbaxy Laboratories soared 7.07%, NTPC surged 4.73%, RCom gained 4.59%, Reliance Capital increased 4.01% and JP Asso remained up by 3.95%.

On the other hand, Maruti Suzuki India (5.98%), Housing Development Finance Corporation (4.30%), Mahindra & Mahindra (4.16%), Larsen & Toubro (4.15%), Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (3.27%), and ICICI Bank (2.23%) were the major losers in the Sensex.