A sharp dip in the mid-noon session saw the markets scale fresh lows, after fairly choppy sessions since this morning. The Sensex, which touched a fresh low of 18,040 post 1230 hrs, down 178 points from the day's high, was trading at 18,042 down 96 points. The Nifty was at 5,408 off 31 points.
Reliance Infra was the top Sensex loser at Rs 563 down 4%, while Tata Motors at Rs 1,150 fell 3% and Reliance Industries shed 2% at Rs 901, contributing 41 points to the total loss on the Sensex. Jaiprakash Associates and Reliance Communications declined 2% each.
IT bellweather Wipro continued to top the Sensex gainers chart at Rs 448 up more than 2%, followed by Hero Honda at Rs 1,834 up 2% and Hindalco Industries at Rs 196 up more than 1%. HDFC, TCS and BHEL added 1% each.
The broader markets lodged losses, with the Mid-cap index at 6,758 down 0.7%, and the Small-cap at 8,203 down 0.6%.
The IT index was the top sectoral gainer at 6,045 up 1%. The Teck and Capital Goods indices were the only other indices in the green, but they were trading flat.
Energy stocks were reeling under pressure, as under-recoveries of oil marketing companies will still remain high, despite the recent hike of Rs 5/litre in petrol prices. Although there are expectations diesel prices will be hiked by Rs 3-5/litre, while those of kerosene and LPG will be raised by Rs 2-3/litre and Rs 25-50/cylinder respectively, rising crude prices will lead to a sharp rise in borrowings of OMCs to meet their working capital needs. The index slipped 2% to 9,186, while the PSU index shed more than 1.5% at 8,423.
With 857 advances versus 1,661 declines, market breadth was very negative.