The markets are trading with a negative bias ahead of the RBI mid-quarterly policy review for FY12. Global cues too are fairly negative following a broad-based sell-off across Asia as investors reacted to fresh concerns in Eurozone and fear of a slowdown in US.
Back home, realty stocks are leading the fall as fears of another imminent rate hike later today looms. Analysts expect a 25 basis point rate hike.
The Sensex touched a low of 18,006 in opening trades, and is now down 92 points at 18,040. The BSE Realty index is down over 1% at 2,098.
The NSE Nifty has declined 31 points at 5,416.
Wipro and Maruti have slipped over 2% each to Rs 415 and Rs 1,186, respectively.
Bajaj Auto, Sterlite, DLF, Jindal Steel and Infosys are the other prominent losers.
The market breadth is fairly negative - out of 2,173 stocks traded so far, 1,282 have declined and 785 have advanced on the BSE.
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