Paring some of its early gains, the Sensex touched a low of 18,098 - down 80 points from the day's high so far. The Sensex is currently at 18,106, up 25 points. The Nifty is marginally up six points at 5438.
Whereas the other Asian markets trade with marginal gains. Hang Seng is at 21,553 up 0.6%, and Nikkie following suit at 9,655 up 0.8%.
However, the BSE smallcap index is up 0.6% and the Midcap index has added 0.5% to outperform the BSE benchmark index. The major movers in this space are AP Paper, Coral Hub, Petronet LNG and Cox and Kings.
Among the BSE Sectoral indices - Realty index is up 1% followed by Bankex up 0.8% and Oil & Gas is up 0.6%. However, Power, Auto, Capital Goods and IT have slipped into the red.
The major gainers on the Sensex are ICICI Bank up 2% followed by DLF up 1.5% and Jaiprakash Associates up 1.3%.
The losers on the main index are Reliance Communications down 1% followed by TCS, ACC and Infosys.
The market breadth is fairly positive with 1,470 stocks advances and 862 declines.
