Sensex ends 111 pts lower ahead of Credit Policy, RIL nos

The benchmark Sensex shed 111 points on Monday, dragged by SBI, Maruti, Hero Honda, Reliance Industries, DLF, ONGC, L&T and HDFC. It closed just above the 18000 level, after witnessing volatility throughout the session. Equity benchmarks looked weak in the last couple of hours today, ahead of big events like Monetary policy, RIl & L&T' Q1 numbers and post Maruti's disappointing numbers.

SBI was the biggest dragger, especially ahead of RBI's Monetary Policy tomorrow. Experts expect increase in key rates instead of CRR. Nandan Chakraborty of Enam said, "The markets are anxiously awaiting RBI's response tomorrow. He expects the RBI to raise Repo and Reverse Repo rates by 25 bps each while keeping CRR unchanged.

Among other financial stocks, HDFC and PNB lost 1.1% each. Kotak Mahindra Bank was down 0.8% while HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank gained 0.4-0.65%.

Shares of India's largest car maker Maruti Suzuki closed 12.3% lower as its net profit declined 20% on year-on-year basis on additional payment of royalty to Suzuki Motor Corp.

Hero Honda was another top loser in auto space; the stock was down 7.5%, as Hero is likely to sell 6% stake in company, reports CNBC-TV18 quoting sources. The BSE Auto Index fell over 3%; Tata Motors was down 2% and M&M down 1%.

Reliance Industries and L&T will declare their Q1FY11 numbers on July 27; these stocks were down 0.7% & 0.9%, respectively.