The markets continue to trade in the negative. The Sensex is down 20 points at 18,995 and the Nifty is flat at 5,982. The smallcap and the midcap indces are up 0.1% each.
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Updated at 1132 hrs
After opening in the positive, the markets quickly lost steam to slip into the negative.The Sensex is currently at an intra-day low of 19,994 and the NIfty is trading down four points at 5,980. The broader markets too pared some of their initial gains but continue to trade in the green. The smallcap index is up 0.2% and the midcaps gained 0.3% outperforming the BSE benchmark index, down 0.07%
On the BSE sectoral indices, Health Care up 0.7% is the top gainer followed by Realty and Bankex. However, Consumer Durables, Metal and Capital Goods has slipped in to the red along with Auto and Oil & Gas which continue to languish at the bottom of the chart.
NTPC, Sterlite and Wipro up 0.7% each are the top gainers on the Sensex followed by DLF, HDFC Bank, Reliance Communications, Hindustan Unilever, Infosys,ICICI Bank and Bharti Airtel adding 0.3% - 0.6%
Tata Steel, Hindalco and Mahindra & Mahindra down 1% each are the top losers on the Sensex followed by BHEL, L&T, TCS and Tata Motors shed 0.6% -0.8%
The market breadth is positive. 1262 stocks have advanced while 989 have declined.