Markets languish in red

Markets languished in the noon deals. Investors seem to have turned cautious on rate sensitive sectors like realty, banking and auto were among the worst hit in trades so far. The Sensex was at 18,377, down 141 points and the S&P CNX Nifty shed 48 points to 5,526.

According to Somil Mehta, Senior Technical Analyst (Equity), Sharekhan "Banking, auto and realty stocks are weak in the short term and expected to correcte 5% to 8% going forward but banking and realty stocks are looking very strong in the medium term out look and after a short term correction these two sectors would be the the place to invest." He further said that in the short term markets are looking week and Nifty could correct till 5,400 levels.

Meanwhile, most of the Asian markets were trading on a flat note. Taiwan added 23 points to 8,817, Hang Seng was at 22,593, up 21 points. However, Nikkei ended at 10,047, lower by 50 points.

Back home, BHEL was the top loser among the Sensex stocks. The stock shed 3.25% to Rs 1,847. Hindalco was trading lower by 2.6% to Rs 173. J P Associates, SBI, Hero Honda, Tata Motors, Hindustan Unilever and Larsen & Toubro and Wipro also languished in the trades so far.

On the other hand, Reliance Communications, Bajaj Auto, Tata Power, DLF, Maruti Suzuki, HDFC, HDFC Bank and TCS were among the notable gainers on the benchmark index.

On the sectoral front barring consumer durables index all the sectoral indices reeled under the selling pressure. BSE Capital Goods index was the top sectoral loser, down 1.8% or 241 points at 13,155. Power index shed 1.4% to 2,504. Realty and Bankex indices declined 1.2% each. Auto, FMCG, Metal, Oil & Gas and PSU indices were trading lower by 0.4-0.8% each.

BHEL, BGR Energy, Usha Martin, Suzlon Energy, Punj Lloyd, Reliance Industrial Infrastructure, Siemens and Larsen & Toubro were the top losers among the capital goods stocks.

The broader markets also slipped into the red. The BSE mid-cap index was down 21 points at 6,987 and the small-cap index was at 8,432, lower by 6 points.

Overall breadth was negative as 1,500 stocks declined while 1,147 stocks advanced.