Markets closed in the red with the Sensex down 44 points at 19,736 and the Nifty was down 12 points to close at 5,987.
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(Updated at 1437hrs)
Markets slipped in the noon deals as profit booking in counters like ONGC, SBI and BHEL weighed on the benchmark indices. At 2:30pm, the Sensex was down 13 points at 19,746 and the Nifty lost six points at 5,993.
Earlier in the day, the Sensex had touched a high of 19,903 and a low of 19,805. Meanwhile, the Nifty had seen a high of 6,038 and a low of 6,000.
In the broader markets, the midcap index slipped 0.6% and the smallcap index lost 0.4%, both underperforming the Sensex which was flat with a negative bias.
In Asia, markets were largely in the green. Japan's Nikkei share average hit a fresh 33-month peak as exporters kept rising and hints of recovery for troubled consumer electronics companies. The index gained 0.6% to close at 11,260. The other gainers were Taiwan Weighted, Shanghai Composite and Straits Times 0.3-0.9%.
Among the sectoral indices, PSU, Health Care, Power, Oil & Gas, Metal, IT and Consumer Durables were the major losers, down 0.2-1%. On the other hand, Auto and Realty indices gained 0.6% each.
The top gainers among the Sensex stocks were Tata Motors,HDFC,ICICI Bank,Jindal Steel,HDFC Bank,L&T and Hindalco up 0.5-3%.
Among the losers were Cipla, Sterlite, Dr Reddys Lab, Tata Power, BHEL and ONGC down 2% each. The other major losers were SBI, Maruti Suzuki, Coal India, Mahindra & Mahindra, Gail India and Infosys down 0.5-1%.
Among individual stocks, Jubilant FoodWorks has slipped over 5% to Rs 1,134 after reporting a lower-than-expected 31% year-on-year rise in net profit at Rs 38 crore for the quarter ended on December 31, 2012 due higher expenditure and tax outgo.
The market breadth was negative. 1542 stocks declined while 1183 stocks advanced on the BSE.
