Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], Dec 16 (ANI): Equity benchmark indices ended lower on Monday as investors booked profits and remained cautious over a trade agreement between Beijing and Washington.

The BSE SP Sensex closed 71 points lower at 40,939 while the Nifty 50 slipped by 26 points at 12,061. All sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were in the red except for Nifty IT and realty.

Among the prominent losers were Grasim which slipped by 2.3 per cent to close at Rs 763.75 per share. Adani Ports lost by 2.3 per cent, ITC by 1.9 per cent, Eicher Motors and JSW Steel by 1.8 per cent each.

However, IT and banking stocks witnessed handsome gains. Tata Consultancy Services was up by 2.8 per cent at Rs 2,130 per share while HCL Technologies and Tech Mahindra ticked up by 1.6 per cent each while Infosys edged higher by 0.4 per cent.

Kotak Mahindra Bank added gains of 0.9 per cent while Yes Bank and ICICI Bank moved higher by 0.5 per cent each.

Meanwhile, Asian shares cracked as investor sentiment after the trade agreement between Beijing and Washington was capped by lingering scepticism about ongoing relations between the world's two largest economies.

Japan's Nikkei 225 succumbed to profit-taking, easing by 0.29 per cent after surging 2.55 per cent to a 14-month closing high on Friday. Shares in South Korea lost by 0.1 per cent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng slipped by 0.65 per cent.

The phase one agreement suspended a threatened round of US tariffs on a 160 billion dollar list of Chinese imports that were scheduled to take effect on Sunday. The United States also agreed to halve the tariff rate to 7.5 per cent on 120 billion dollars worth of Chinese goods. (ANI)