Markets flat in late-noon trades

Markets are on the verge of breaking into the green.

The Sensex touched a low of 17,629 on opening. It recovered some of its losses thereafter, but remained in red. The index started moving towards the green in noon trades and is now down just 25 poinst at 17,725.

The Nifty is down marginally at 5,314.

The recovery is being led by the BSE healthcare index. The index has jumped 1% to 5725. The consumer durables, auto and realty indices have also moved up.

Larsen & Toubro has extended losses and is now down 3% at Rs 1,766. Jindal Steel abd Sterlite have shed 1.3% each at Rs 663 and Rs 176, respectively.

NTPC has dropped 1.2% to Rs 197. SBI, ACC and Wipro are down marginally today.

On the other hand, Maruti Suzuki has gained 2.5% at Rs 1,404. Communication stocks - Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel ahve added over 1% each to Rs 189 and Rs 265, respectively.

Hindustan Unilever has jumped 1.2% to Rs 265. Cipla, Hero Honda and Reliance Infrastructure have also moved up around 1% each.

BSE market breadth is fairly positive. Out of 2840 stocks traded, 1640 have advanced while 1051 have declined.