Markets slip into red

The markets have slipped into the negative territory on the back of fresh weakness in banking stocks. The Sensex, which, touched a high of 18,689 in early noon deals has erased all its gains now. The BSE benchmark is now down 48 points at 18,481.

The NSE Nifty has declined 20 points at 5,531.

HDFC Bank has dropped over 2% to Rs 2,229. HDFC has shed 1.5% at Rs 654 ahead of its results today.

Tata Steel, Hero Honda, Tata Power and ICICI Bank are the other major losers.

Hindustan Unilever, however, continues to hold ground with a gain of nearly 4% at Rs 295. Sterlite has gained 2.5% at Rs 173.

Reliance Communications, NTPC and Bajaj Auto are the other prominent gainers.

The market breadth has also turned negative now - out of 2,760 stocks traded so far on the BSE, 1,327 have declined and 1,292 have advanced.