New Delhi, Oct 31 (IANS): Indian bourses started the last day of October at a critical zone of 19,200-19,250 and in the morning trade itself, the index erased all its gains to remain rangebound, Aditya Gaggar, Director at Progressive Shares, said on Tuesday.

Mid-session recovery did not last for long as another round of selling especially in banks dragged the index much lower to settle at 19,079.60 with a loss of 61.30 points.

Among the sectors, realty remained a top performer followed by media; on the flip side, auto and pharma were the major laggards, Gaggar said.

Reality was the sector which outperform on Tuesday, up by 1.27 per cent, while Nifty FMCG and Nifty PSU bank were the two sectors that ended the day with marginal gains by 0.16 per cent and 0.14 per cent, respectively, said Vaibhav Vidwani, Research Analyst at Bonanza Portfolio.

SBI Life Insurance, Titan Company, HDFC Life, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Asian Paints and Sun Pharma were the top gainers on the Nifty, while M&M, Eicher Motors, LTIMindtree, and ONGC were among the top loser.

Kunal Shah, Senior Technical & Derivative Analyst at LKP Securities, said the Nifty index faced a challenge after a gap-up opening, encountering strong resistance at higher levels and failing to surpass the day's high.

Currently, the index is trading within a wide range bound by 18,900 and 19,250, and a breakout in either direction is likely to trigger trending moves. The broader trend remains negative, and only a close above 19,300 would signal a resumption of the uptrend.