Markets close in negative zone, Sensex falls 71 points

New Delhi: Markets closed in the negative zone on Monday with analysts believing that investiors remained cautious ahead of the Union Budget which is set to be presented next week.

After a positive start in the morning, the BSE Sensex closed 71.53 points or 0.18 percent down to 39,122.96 while the NSE Nifty dropped 24.45 points or 0.21 percent to 11,699.65.

Sensex hit an intra-day low of 39,021.70 and a high of 39,300.02 while Nifty touched a low of 11,670.20 and a high of 11,754.

Tata Steel, Vedanta, Bajaj Auto, TechM, RIL, Hero MotoCorp, Kotak Bank, Axis Bank, and Infosys too fell up to 2.33 percent. On the other hand, Yes Bank, M&M, TCS, SBI, IndusInd Bank, Maruti and ITC rose up to 2.19 percent.

On Friday, the BSE Sensex closed 491.28 points or 1.25 percent down at 38,960.79 while the NSE Nifty tanked 151.15 points or 1.28 percent down at 11,672.15. Led by the sharp fall in the equity market, the market capitalisation (m-cap) of BSE-listed companies dropped Rs 83,434.19 crore to Rs 1,50,47,206.54 crore as compared to  market capitalisation at Rs 1,51,30,670.73 crore on the previous day (June 20).