Markets remain lacklustre

The markets are trading on a lacklustre note in the noon deals. The Sensex has shed 44 points to 17,663 leevls and the Nifty is down 11 points at 5,357. The weakness in the market is due to selling pressure visible in the index heavyweight stocks such as Hindalco, Reliance Industries and Bharti Airtel.

According to Ravi Nathani, Technical analyst, Nsetoday.com, "Until Nifty does not close below 5300; markets are not looking weak on charts."

Hindalco is the top loser among the Sensex stocks, down 5.4% at Rs 151 after Novelis, the US unit of the company cut its fiscal-year earnings estimate for the second time, citing lower shipments cause of soft demand in Europe and weakness in its electronics business in Asia.

ONGC has also shed 2.4% to Rs 276 on reporting 4.8% year-on-year drop in its net profit at Rs 6,741 crore for the quarter ended December 2011 due to three-fold jump oil subsidy burden.

Bharti Airtel, Larsen & Toubro, Sun Pharma, Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, ITC and HDFC are also among the laggards.

At the same time, Tata Motors is the top gainer, up nearly 2% at Rs 256, Bajaj Auto, NTPC, HDFC Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Tata Power, HUL, Coal India and Jindal Steel have also advanced 0.7-1.9% each.

BSE Oil & Gas index is the top sectoral loser, down 0.7% or 66 points at 8,796 levels.  Metal index has also shed 0.4% or 46 points to 11,999. IT, Capital Goods and FMCG indices are also facing a mild selling pressure.

However, realty stocks are witnessing renewed buying interest in trades today. The BSE Realty index is up 2.2% or 41 points at 1,910 levels. Auto, power, consumer durables, banking and PSU stocks are also witnessing some buying.

GAIL India and Indian Oil are among the losers from the oil & gas space.

From the realty stocks, HDIL is the top gainer, up 5.6% at Rs 95. Unitech, Sobha Developers, Anant Raj Industries, Godrej Properties and Oberoi realty are also among the gainers.

Among the individual shares, Unity Infraprojects is locked in 5% upper circuit at Rs 46.60 after the company said it has bagged new construction orders worth Rs 485 crore.

The broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices. The BSE mid-cap index is up 08% or 51 points at 6,213 levels and the small-cap index has jumped 59 points to 6,871 levels.