NEW DELHI: Most metal & mining stocks were reeling under selling pressure during afternoon trade on Monday.
The BSE Metal index was trading 1.94 per cent down at 12,229 around 1 pm with Jindal Steel & Power (down 4.48 per cent), Tata Steel (down 3.74 per cent) and Hindalco Industries (down 2.15 per cent) as the top losers.
Shares of Steel Authority of India (SAIL) (down 2.14 per cent), Nalco (down 2.12 per cent), NMDC (down 1.95 per cent), Coal India (down 1.66 per cent), JSW Steel (down 1.37 per cent) and Hindustan Zinc (down 0.91 per cent) were also among the losers in the metal index.
Meanwhile, Vedanta (up 0.14 per cent) was trading with nominal gains around that time.
Key indices Sensex and Nifty were down, tracking weak Asian cues. Investors were cautious after an official data showed that China's economy slowed a little in the second quarter.
Weak domestic macroeconomic indicators too hit the sentiment. India's trade deficit widened to its highest in more than five years in June, the trade ministry said on Friday, driven largely by a surge in oil prices and a weaker rupee.
Moreover, both retail and wholesale price inflation have shown an uptick amid wobbly rupee and crude oil prices.
Benchmark BSE Sensex was flat at 36,537, while the NSE Nifty50 index was down 20 points at 10,999.
Among the 50 stocks in the Nifty index, 20 were trading in the green, while 30 were in the red.
In the Sensex index, 13 stocks were advancing, while 18 were declining.
ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma and Bharti Airtel were among the top losers in the Sensex index.
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