Markets near day's low

The Sensex has extended further losses and is now at 17,394, down 165 points. The NSE Nifty is 56 points down at 5,221.
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(Updated at 1157hrs)

The markets continue to exhibit weakness owing to selling in metal stocks and on the impact of Asian markets after Beijing's monetary policy tightened over the weekend.

Among the Sensex-30 stocks, Hero Honda, Mahindra & Mahindra and Maruti have advanced 0.5% each to Rs 1,921, Rs 530 and Rs 1,287, respectively.

Hindalco and Sterlite have slipped 2% each to Rs 174. The other major losers are Reliance Infrastructure, Hindustan Unilever and Infosys are down 1% each on the BSE.

The market breadth is negative, out of 2,719 shares traded, 1,337 have declined and 1,275 have advanced so far on the BSE.

Among the sectoral indices, metal index has slipped 1% to 17,440. Sesa Goa has slipped 4% to Rs 411 and Hindalco Industries is down 2%, respectively on the metal index.

Both the midcap and the smallcap indices are trading extremely flat on the benchmark index. Ador Weilding and Satra Properties are the major gainers on the smallcap index.