Markets near day's low

Markets have dropped to their lows in late-morning trades. The Sensex, after opening witha positive gap, dropped to a low of 16,382 - down 142 points. The index is now down 141 points at 16,383. Nifty shed 42 points to 4,928.

Global markets were mixed with a negative bias as concerns about the Eurozone debts resurfaced. There were doubts whether officials would be able to tackle the debt crisis. Hang Seng shed 1.2% to 17,917. Shanghai Composite and Straits Times dropped 0.4-0.6% each. Meanwhile, Nkikkei was up 0.3% and Taiwan Weighted gained 0.6%.

On Tuesday, the foreign institutional investors were net buyers of 34 crore, while the domestic institutional were net buyers of 690 crore.

The market may remain volatile in the near future as traders roll over positions in the futures & options tomorrow.

In other economic news, eight core industries have grown at their slowest in 11 months at 3.5 per cent in that month, down more than half of their highest growth in a year, which was 7.8 per cent in July. This may have repercussions for industrial growth in August.

BSE IT index held on to gains on hopes of good earnings in the coming quarter. The index was up 1.2% at 5,248. Infosys has gained 1.6% at Rs 2,486. Infosys starts the earnings season on October 12. Wipro and TCS are up 0.5% each.

"Tech stocks have seen a clean run this expiry, we are also seeing decent rolls in these counters. However, we advise caution as the long build-up in the Open interest of these Scrips is on the assumption that INR will remain weak against the USD. Any signs of intervention by the RBI will immediately also trigger Long unwinding in these stock reversing the gains seen in the current expiry," said Shshank Mehta, Derivatives Strategist, Shah Investor's Home.

BSE metal, auto and realty indices have slipped 1.2 - 1.8% each. Jaiprakahs Associates. Metal stocks declined on a weak economic data from China. Hindalco, Sterlite and Mahindra & Mahindra are down 2-3% each. Among the major draggers were ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro and HDFC.