The markets have extended their losses in the past one hour. The Sensex is now quoting at the lowest point of the day at 17885, down 92 points and the Nifty is at 5373, down 25 pints. The midcap and smallcap indices are trading flat at 7429 and 9470 respectively.
The benchmark indices had a subdued start to the day after Fed chairman Bernanke's comments on the state of the US economy pushed the Dow lower overnight and in turn led to a tentative start across Asia.
The top losers on the Sensex are ICICI Bank (weakened by 1.5% at Rs 888), Tata Steel (shed 1.3% at Rs 523 and Infosys (lost 1.2% at Rs 2731). RCom, Sterlite and DLF are the other major losers. And index heavyweight RIL has edged lower by 0.7% at Rs 1051.
On the other hand, M&M has taken off from where it left on the previous day. The auto major has strengthened by 1.4% at Rs 625 to emerge as the leading gainer on the BSE and Cipla has gained 1.2% at Rs 329. And all the major result candidates for the day are trading in the green. Bajaj Auto has firmed up by 1.7% at Rs 2456, ITC has added 0.7% at Rs 294 and ACC has gained 0.2% at Rs 827. and ITC has added 0.6% at Rs 294.
The market breadth is marginally positive. Out of 2431 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1183 advancing stocks as against 1149 declines.