Markets have pared the day's gain and slipped into negative terrain, amid weak European cues, with ITC and Infosys leading the decline.
At 1:55pm the Sensex was down 20 points at 16,460 after touching an intra-day low of 16,423 and the Nifty was down 4 points at 4,971 after touching an intra-day of 4,961.
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(Updated at 12:59pm)
The markets continued to hold on to their gains in noon deals with the BSE Sensex at 16,623, up 143 points and the Nifty at 5,024, up 49 points, led by index heavyweight Reliance Industries and financials.
Earlier in the day, the BSE benchmark index touched the day's high at 16,672 and the day's low at 16,516.
In Asia, Japan's Nikkei average slid 0.4% after lurching in and out of positive territory as bargain hunting was offset by poor Chinese trade figures and concerns that euro zone instability could further derail global growth. The Shanghai Composite index has gained 0.08% while the Hang Seng index has shed 0.64%.
Back home, index heavyweight Reliance Inds has surged nearly 1% at Rs 702. RIL said it signed a $2-billion equivalent loan with nine banks covered by Euler Hermes Deutschland AG earlier this week in Germany.
All the sectoral indices are in the green. BSE Capital Goods, Bankex, Oil & Gas, Metal and Auto indices are leading the gains, having advanced 1% each.
From the Capital Goods space, Larsen & Toubro and BHEL have increased by nearly 2% on value buying at lower levels after both shares had witnessed heavy selling pressure in the past few sessions.
Auto shares firmed up after car sales in India rose an annual 3.4% in April, according to data from Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) on Thursday, a sixth consecutive monthly increase but lower than in recent months after the country hiked excise duty on the vehicles.From the Auto segment, Mahindra & Mahindra has surged almost 2%. Hero Moto and Bajaj Auto have gained nearly 1-2% each.
Among the Sensex 30 stocks, DLF, BHEL, Jindal Steel, M&M and L&T, up 2% each, are the notable gainers. The losers from the pack are Maruti Suzuki, Infosys and Coal India, down 1-2% each, GAIL (India) and Sun Pharma Industries are down marginally.
ABB is trading lower by 3% at Rs 726, after the company said it has received orders worth Rs 1,632 crore in Q12012 (down 4%) given the slowdown in ordering from the power sector due to poor market sentiment.
The overall market breadth is positive as 1,454 stocks have advanced against 1,005 declining ones, on the BSE.
