The sensex is up 16 points at 20143 and the Nifty has added nine points at 6,072.
Updated at 1507 hrs
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Renewed buying interest in select IT stocks coupled with recovery in Larsen & Toubro have helped the markets cut losses. The Sensex which touched a low of 19,870 in opening deals, recovered partially on the back of good Q2 numbers from Larsen & Toubro. In fact, there has been a sharp recovery in the last few minutes of trade, the Sensex is now down just 70 points at 20,054.
The NSE Nifty too has clawed its way back, and is now down 25 points at 6037.
The BSE IT index has appreciated nearly 1% to 6130. The Oil & Gas index is unchanged at 10,699. FMCG, Metal and banking stocks however stand out as the major losers so far.
The market breadth still remains fairly negative - out of 3,026 stocks traded so far, 1,882 have declined and 1,058 have advanced.
Among the Sensex 30 stocks, TCS has surged nearly 3% to Rs 977. NTPC and Infosys have advanced over 1% each to Rs 206 and Rs 3,111, respectively.
On the other hand, ACC has shed nearly 3% to Rs 971. Bharti Airtel, Mahindra & Mahindra, ICICI Bank and Jaiprakash Associates have dropped over 2% each.
Cipla, ITC, Tata Power, Hindalco, Sterlite and HDFC are the other major losers.
IT stocks - Apart from TCS and Infosys, HCL Technologies and MphasiS have also logged in smart gains. However, Rolta, Patni Computers and Wipro are languishing in the red.
