Markets remain lacklustre

Markets continued to trade in the lacklustre fashion but managed to recover partial losses in the past one hour. The Sensex had shed 50 points at 20,510 and Nifty was lower by 15 points at 6142.

Bajaj Auto was the top loser on the Sensex the stock was trading lower by more than 3% at Rs 1430, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Hindalco Industries, HDFC Bank and Reliance Communication were also among the losers down more than 1.3%. On the other hand Hindustan Unilever, ITC, Reliance Infrastructure, Jindal Steel, Wipro and NTPC were the gainers up motre 0.6% each.

Banking stocks witnessed heavy selling pressure, the BSE Banking index- Bankex was down 234 points or 1.75% at 13,219. BSE Auto, PSU, Capital Goods, Realty and Metal indices were also trading in the red. At the same time FMCG index was the top sectoral gainer up 1.21% or 44 points at 3737. Helathcare, Oil & Gas, IT and Power indices were also gainers up more than 0.29% each.

Indusind Bank was the top loser among the banking stocks, down 3.2% at Rs 256. ICICI Bank, Union Bank of India, State Bank of India, Canara Bank and Yes Bank were also among the losers. Hindustan Unilever, Marico, Tata Global Beverages, ITC, Dabur and Nestle were among the top gainers on the FMCG charts up more than 1.34%.

Broader markets continued to trade flat with BSE mid-cap index adding 5 points at 878 and small-cap index was up 25 points at 9870.

The overall market breadth was negative as 1298 stock declined while 1403 stocks advanced.