The markets have recovered in the past half-hour or so. The Sensex after touching a day's low of 16622 and is now quoting at 16700, down 19 points, and the Nifty is at 4977, lower by 9 points. The consumer durables and realty sectors are up, while consumer goods, FMCG and power space is seeing lackluster movements. The mid-cap and small cap indices are marginally higher at 6499 and 7941 respectively.
The trading day began on a flat note in the backdrop of mixed global cues. The US markets had edged higher on Friday, while the Asian bourses gave mixed signals in early trades.
The leading gainers on the Sensex are Wipro (stronger by Rs 14 or 2.1% at Rs 689), TCS (higher by Rs 7 or 1% at Rs 735) and Tata Motors (up Rs 6 or 0.9% at Rs 739).
Tata Steel, Reliance Communication and SBI are the other prominent gainers.
Index bellwether Reliance has recovered marginally from early-morning bruises and is now perched on the 1000 mark. The stock had slipped to Rs 990 on news that Sebi has asked the government to consider appropriate action against Reliance Industries for allegedly routing funds to dummy companies for buying large quantity of its shares in 2000.
Jaiprakash Associates has weakened by Rs 2 or 1.3% at Rs 145, BHEL has lost Rs 29 or 1.2% at Rs 2290 and Hindalco has shed Rs 1 or 1% at Rs 141. L&T and Hindalco are the other major losers.
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The market breadth is strong. Out of 2369 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1298 advancing stocks as against 988 declines.
Reliance leads the turnover charts at Rs 83.62 crore on the BSE. This is followed by Havells India at Rs 39.50 crore, Tata Steel at Rs 36.52 crore, Unitech at Rs 33.49 crore and SBI at Rs 33.39 crore.
Austral Coke tops the volume charts, clocking total trades of 12.14 million shares, followed by Suzlon at 2.59 million shares, Unitech at 4.25 million, DLF at 0.8 million and Reliance at 0.85 million shares.