Market off day highs

After hitting an intra-day high of 17,410, the BSE benchmark index, has pared some of its gains from early trades on selling pressure in auto stocks. The Sensex was up 53 points at 17,326 while the Nifty added 13 points at 5,270.

In the broader markets, the Small Cap index was up 0.3%  in line with the Sensex and the Mid Cap index was up 0.2%.

In the Asian markets, Hong Kong and China shares slumped as the corporate earnings season failed to meet the street expectations. Hang Seng slipped 0.5% while Shanghai Composite lost nearly 1%. Meanwhile, Japanese markets are closed today.

Among the sectoral indices, Consumer Durables gained over 1% on account of the bargain hunting.VIP Industries, Videocon and Titan Industries which added 2-3% were the top gainers in the space.

The other notable gainers were FMCG, Capital Goods, Oil & Gas and IT indices which gained 0.5% each. On the other hand, Auto index slipped further and lost nearly 1%. Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto,Tata Motors and Maruti Suzuki lost 1-2%

Jindal Steel, HDFC Bank, TCS, Sun Pharma,ITC and Strelite up 1% each were the top gainers among the Sensex stocks.

Apart from the auto stocks, the major Sensex losers were Coal India down nearly 2% and ONGC down 0.5%.

Meanwhile, shares of media and entertainment companies such as Fame India, Saregama India, Sri Adhikari Brothers Television Network, Eros International Media and Crest Animations were in limelight trading higher by 2-8%.Among individual stocks, Fame India soared 10% , Saregama India rallied 7% followed by Sri Adhikari Brothers Television Network up 6% and Eros International Media up 2%.

Also, Jet Airways took off as the airline announced that it will consolidate its low fare service products under the JetKonnect brand. The stock was up over 2.5% at Rs 330.

The market breadth was positive. 1199 stocks advanced while 1054 stocks declined on the BSE.