The Sensex closeed in the red, down 42 points at 19,562 and the Nifty lost 10 points at 5,874.
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(Updated at 1446 hrs)
After moving sideways for the previous hour, the Sensex has slipped into the red. The BSE benchmark index is down six points at 19,595 while the Nifty is at 5,877 down seven points. However, the broader markets have managed to hold some of its gains with the smallcap and the midcap indices up 0.2% each as compared to the Sensex up 0.05%
Earlier in the day, the markets had opened flat on back of subdued global cues and losses posted by heavyweight Reliance Industries in opening trades as fourth quarter results reported after market hours on Thursday were below expectations. Thereon, the Sensex moved north to touch a high of 19,697, up 159 points from the opening. However, the markets lost steam as heavyweight Reliance started sliding and the Sensex touched a low of 19,531 in the afternoon trades. However, the resurgent Infosys, SBI and L&T balanced out the losses due to RIL preventing the Sensex from further downfall.
Among the sectoral indices, IT and Consumer Durables up 0.7% each lead the gains followed by Capital Goods and PSU up nearly 0.5%.
The top gainers were SBI up nearly 2%, Maruti Suzuki, Infosys, L&T and BHEL gaining 1% each are the top gainers among the Sensex stocks.
RIL down nearly 3%, DLF, Hindalco, Jindal Steel, Reliance Communication, Reliance Infrastructure down 1% each are the top losers on the Sensex.
The market breadth is negative. Of the total 2957 stocks traded on the BSE, 1554 stocks have declined while 1301 have advanced.