Markets continue to trade in red

Banks and IT scrips among the major draggers

Markets continue to languish in the red in early noon deals as profit booking was visible in IT and banking counters.

In the broader markets, the smallcap and the midcap indices were down 1% each underperforming the Sensex which slipped 0.6%.

Meanwhile, IMF has cut India's growth forecast to 6% for 2013 versus a previous forecast of 6.6%

Asian shares rose as investor risk aversion eased after the European Central Bank said it was ready to buy bonds of troubled euro zone countries, while markets awaited a key U.S. jobs report. Jakarta Composite, Hang Seng,    Nikkei and Straits Times up 0.4-0.8% were the leading markets.

Among the sectoral indices, Consumer Durables, Auto and FMCG indices up 0.5-1% were the only sectoral gainers. On the other hand, IT and Bankex indices down 1% each were the major draggers along with Health care, power, Realty and Metal indices down 0.4-0.8%

The top gainers among the Sensex stocks were Tata Motors, Hindustan Unilever, Coal India and Mahindra & Mahindra up 1% each. L&T, Jindal Steel, Maruti Suzuki and ITC were the other gainers adding 0.3-0.7%.

Among the losers were HDFC dipped 4% on back of multiple block deals on the NSE and BSE. According to reports, global private equity major, Carlyle Group, offloaded its 3.71% residual stake for about Rs 4,500 crore. Wipro, Bharti Airtel, Infosys, ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma, HDFC Bank, BHEL, TCS and NTPC down 1-3% were the other major losers.

Among other stocks, shares of companies engaged in education sector are in the focus with many of them trading higher on back of heavy volumes in otherwise weak market. Everon Education surged 11% to Rs 171 on back of over five-fold jump in trading volumes.  Educomp Solutions gained 6% to Rs 175 and NIIT by 3% at Rs 34.85.

Adani Power dipped 2% to Rs 54 on reports that the promoter plans to sell part of its holding through the stock exchange mechanism on Monday, October 8.

The market breadth was negative. 1877 stocks declines as against 768 advances on the BSE.