Telecom major Bharti Airtel was among major losers. The stock lost almost 5% at Rs 850. Bharti had offered $21.8 per share for 51% stake in South Africa’s MTN Group. MTN Group is major telecom player in fast growing South African mobile users market.

MTN Group is asking for $23.8 per share. Alpine Trust is major shareholder in South African company holding 23 percent stake. China Mobile, Vodafone and Reliance Communications are also named in the race to acquire share in South African market. However, these companies haven’t commented on the market speculation. Vodafone has signed a contract with Apple to sell iPhone in 10 countries including India.

BSE Sensex was down by 171 points at 17,319 while NSE Nifty was down by 61 points at 5131. Real Estate counters were trading down. Selling was witnessed in select banking and PSU stock as well.

Asian markets were trading weak as well. Japanese markets were closed due to holiday. US Markets closed lower on Monday after recent rally. Yahoo! was among major losers in early trading session while Google opened with wide positive gap at $599 per share. Nasdaq Composite closed at 2464 after losing 0.52%.