Markets choppy in morning trades

Markets were choppy in morning trades with the Sensex dropping moving between 18,279 and 18,111. Realty and metal stocks dragged.

The Sensex opened in the positive zone but dipped almost immediately. The index recovered for a short time and was down 71 points at  18131.

Nifty was down 22 points at 5,434.

Most of the sectoral indices, barring oil & gas and PSU were in the red. BSE realty index shed 1.3% to 2,112. Metal and IT dropped 0.6% each.

Jaiprakash Associates dropped 2.6% to Rs 85. Reports suggest that the company is planning to raise Rs 3,500 cr for Jaiprakash Power through an FPO or GDRs.

IT stocks slipped with TCS dropping 2.5% to Rs 1,086. Mahindra & Mahindra, BHEL, Hindalco and DLF were down 1-2% each.

Other losers included Jindal Steel, Larsen & Toubro, Hero Honda and ONGC.

On the other hand, Tata Power gained 2.5% to Rs 1,273 on a good performance in Q3. Net profit of the company stood at Rs 441.37 crore - up 348%.

Reliance Communications advanced 1.6% to Rs 99 in spite of a 56.7% drop in net profit at Rs 480.27 crore.

Reliance was up 1% followed by HUL, NTPC and ICICI Bank.