Sensex down 57 points

Winding up of positions by speculators on the last day of November month's expiry in the derivatives segment also put some pressure.

The Sensex, which gained over 67 points in yesterday's choppy trade, moved down by 57.64 points to 17,141.31 in early trade.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty also drifted by 28.95 points to 5,079.20.

Brokers said besides profit booking by funds and retail investors, weak trends at other Asian bourses, which were down up to 1 per cent in morning trade today, also weighed on the sentiments here.

Today being the last session of current month, November expiry in the futures and options segment players turned cautious and were seen winding up their positions, they said.

Reliance Industries in ex-bonus deals traded at Rs 1,093.80 against yesterday's close of Rs 2,193.75 (cum-bonus). Company had announced  one bonus share for every share held.

Major losers were BHEL down by 0.28 per cent to Rs 2,250, HDFC Bank by 0.45 per cent to Rs 2,794.95, ICICI Bank by 0.57 per cent to Rs 894, State Bank of India by 0.39 per cent to Rs 2,313.80, ITC Ltd by 0.89 per cent to Rs 266.35,Tata Motors by 0.89 per cent to Rs 638 and  Mahindra and Mahindra by 0.83 per cent to Rs 1,050.90.