Markets trade lacklustre

After falling from the high levels, the markets traded in a very narrow range in the last hour of trade. The Sensex was at 18,441 lower by 65 points while the S&P CNX Nifty was at 5529 lower by 16 points.

Hindustan Unilever was the top gainer among the Sensex stocks, the stock added 2% to Rs 279 followed by Wipro, HDFC Bank, TCS, BHEL, HDFC, Maruti Suzuki and Cipla higher by1-2% each. On the other hand ADAG stocks led the losers chart on the Sensex, Reliance Infrastructure was the top loser followed by Reliance Communication lower by nearly 3% each. ONGC, Jaiprakash Associates, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, Tata Power, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Auto, Larsen & Tobro and Mahindra & Mahindra were also among the losers down 1-2% each.

Most of the sectoral indices remained subdued, IT, FMCG, teck and healtthcare indices were trading higher while driven by poor investor sentiment realty stocks continued to witness the selling pressure, the BSE Realty index was the top loser down 0.8% or 17 points at 2120. Auto, Oil & Gas, Power, Metal, PSU, Consumer Durables, Capital Goods and Bankex indices were also trading in the red.

Anant Raj Industries was the top loser among the realty stocks, the stock shed 5.6% at Rs 89. Sobha Developers, Unitech, Parsvanath Developers, HDIL, Indiabulls Real Estate, Peninsula Land and Phoenix Mills also traded lower by 1-3% each. Among the Wipro, TCS, Infosys, Core Projects and Financial Technologies were among the top gainers.

Broader markets were also trading with a negative bias, BSE mid-cap index was lower by 19 points at 6777 and the small-cap index had shed 42 points at 8281.

The market breadth turned negative as 1551 stocks declined while 1061 stocks advanced.