Global cues drag markets

The markets have opened in the red this morning, taking cues from global peers. The Sensex has dipped 23 points at 17,149. Nifty is down nine points at 5,213.

Overnight, the US markets slipped on renewed fears of a disorderly default in Greece and concerns that China's slowdown would hit global growth. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 1.6 per cent to close at 12,759. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index dropped 1.5 per cent to 1,343.

Asian shares fell for a third day in a row on Wednesday as investors grew more risk averse. The MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan index fell 0.2 per cent, while Japan's Nikkei average opened down 1.3 per cent.

Most of the sectoral indices were in red with the BSE metal index leading the losses - down 1% at 11,037. Power, oil & gas and bankex were down nearly a per cent each.

Meanwhile, the IT index was marginally in green at 6,106.

Reliance is the biggest dragger among Sensex stocks = down 0.7% at Rs 771. Jindal Steel and SBI have shed 1.2% each to Rs 539 and Rs 2,125, respectively. Hindalco, BHEL, ONGC and GAIL are some of the other ke losers.

Among individual stocks, Larsen and Toubro has added 0.4% at Rs 1,241 on reports that L&T Infotech, the engineering company’s information technology arm, is exploring options of buying out the latter.

Hotel Leelaventures, which had reported a loss for the December quarter, has been referred to the corporate debt restructuring cell to recast debt of 4,000 crore rupees. The stock has jumped 1.7% to Rs 35.25.

Tata Steel has dipped 0.7% at Rs 425 on reports that it has increased prices of its long products by about 1,000 rupees per metric tonne.

Meanwhile, Hero MotoCorp has added 1.4% at Rs 1,894. Wipro, Cipla and Infosys have added nearly a per cent each.