Market breadth very negative; IT holds

The Sensex has touched an intra-day low of 18,444, continuing its bad run into the afternoon trades. The index is currently at 18,499, shedding 185 points and the Nifty continues to lose at 5,541 shedding 63 points. The midcaps and the smallcaps are down 2% eachy underperforming the benchmark index at 1%

On the BSE sectoral charts, IT continues to trade in the green but has pared most of its morning gains. Consumer Durables, Auto, Realty and Capital Goods  have all slipped furthur losing 3% -4%

Infosys, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, ITC up 1% ecah are the top gainers on the Sensex. Hindustan Unilever,Wipro, HDFC Bank adding 0.1% - 0.6% are the other noteable gainers.

Mahindra & Mahindra down 5% closely followed by BHEL, Tata Motors,DLF,Jaiprakash Associates losing 4% ecah are the top Sensex losers.

The market breadth is very negative. 2150 stocks have declined while 481 have advanced.