Weakness continues to persist in the noon deals with the Sensex trading 0.2% or 37 points lower at 20,838 levels, while the Nifty is down by four points at 6277.
Among individual scrips, Hindalco Industries leads the Sensex gainers followed by Tata Power, Mahindra & Mahindra and SBI. Bharti Airtel, ONGC, TCS, DLF and HDFC are among the losers in the BSE 30 pack.
However, the broader markets have outperformed the benchmark indices. The mid-cap index has added 48 points at 8778 in noon trades and the small-cap index is up 114 points at 11,358. Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company, Sterlite Technologies, Indusind Bank and Honeywell Auto are the top gainers among the mid-cap stocks. On the other hand, Entegra, Hitachi Home, Dhanuka Agritech, Vikas WSP and Siyaram Silk are among the small-cap gainers.
On the sectoral front, the BSE Consumer Durables index is the top gainer, adding 106 points to 7350 levels followed by Metal, Auto and Power indices. However, BSE Tech index is the top loser followed by IT, Realty and Oil & Gas indices.
Hanung Toys has gained 6% in today's trade on back of better than expected Q2 numbers. Ranbaxy Laboratories is trading marginally higher after reporting a 164% y-o-y jump in its third quarter net profit to Rs 308 crore.
The overall market breadth continues to remain positive. Out of 2888 stocks traded on the BSE, 1869 stocks are advancing and 934 stocks are declining.