The key benchmark indices remained weak in afternoon trade today. The Sensex fell 178 points to 16,956 and the Nifty was down 54 points at 5,029.

The markets have rallied rapidly over the last 6 months and now corporate earnings will have to catch up with that. Markets may see a minor correction in the very near term, said Sanjay Sachdev, Country Manager, Shinsei Bank Group.

While defensive stocks gained, technology, realty and banking stocks were under pressure. The technology index on the BSE fell 1.7 per cent. The BSE realty index was down 1.4 per cent and the banking index dropped 1.2 per cent. The oil & gas index on the BSE was also down over 1 per cent. 

The BSE FMCG index, on the other hand, gained 1.1 per cent.

Among the Sensex stocks, Grasim Industries and Bharti Airtel fell over 5 per cent each.

Reliance Infra, however, rose 3 per cent.

Asian stock markets fell on Monday after a worse-than-expected US jobs report raised concerns that a strong recovery in the world's largest economy is still far off.