Markets remain lacklustre

Markets traded in the negative zone, but recovered most of their initial losses. The Sensex was down 10 points at 19,972 and Nifty was unchanged at 5979.

Tata Motors was the top lsoer among the Sensex stocks, the stock was trading at Rs 1309 lower by nearly 3%, ICICI Bank shed 1.3% to Rs 1115. BHEL, Maruti Suzuki, ONGC, Mahindra & Mahindra also reeled under the selling pressure traded lower by more than 0.7%. On the other hand, Hindalco Industries, Sterlite Industries, ITC, Larsen & Toubro, Wipro and Bharti Airtel were the significant gainers up more than 0.6% each.

Consumer durables, Metal and FMCG stocks witnessed some buying. The BSE Consumer Durables index was at 6043 up 0.75% or 45 points BSE Metal index added 116 points or 0.69% at 17,157 and FMCG index was up 22 points at 3561.

Auto index led the sectoral losers pack, the index was lower by 97 points or 0.97% at 9971 followed by Oil & Gas index down 57 points at 10,582. BSE PSU, BSE banking index- bankex and IT indices also traded in the red.

Titan Industries, Videocon Industries, Whirlpool and Gitanjali Gems were gainers among the consumer durable stocks while Tata Motors was the top loser on the auto index followed by Ashok Leyland, Amtek Auto, Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra & Mahindra, down more than 0.3% each.

The broader markets traded on a flat note with mid-cap index adding 4 points at 7612 and small-cap index adding 10 points at 9335.