Markets trade on a weak note, Sensex down 180pts

The markets continued to trade on a weak note in the noon deals on the back of weak global cues and selling pressure visible in the metal, capital goods and banking stocks. The Sensex was at 17,523, down 181 points and the Nifty shed 67 points to 5,259.

Earlier in the day, the markets opened in the red and the Sensex touched the low of 17,489.

According to Ranak Merchant, Technical Analyst with Sushil Financial Services, "Technically 5,323 is an important level for Nifty to be sustained for the upmove to resume and 200 day SMA of 5,405 would act as an important resistance level."

Meanwhile, on the corporate front Hindustan Petroleum declared its second quarter number. The company reported net loss of Rs 3,364 crore compared to profit of Rs 2,090 crore during the same period previous fiscal. The net sales of the company however grew 20% to Rs 37,030 on Y-O-Y basis. Cement major ACC and Ambuja Cement would be coming out with their second quarter earnings later in the day today.

Back to markets, Sterlite Industries was the top loser among the Sensex stocks, down 3.4% to Rs 123, ICICI Bank was trading weaker by 3.3% at Rs 899. Cipla, Jindal Steel, Tata Steel, Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra & Mahindra, ITC, Infosys, J P Associates, DLF, Bajaj Auto and DLF were also among the laggards on the benchmark index.

On the other hand, Sun Pharma, Hindustan Unilever, Wipro, Tata Power, Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors, BHEL and SBI were among the notable gainers.

Among the individual stocks, Pitti Laminations has surged 17% to Rs 61 after reporting more than three-fold jump in net profit at Rs 6.06 crore for the quarter ended September 2011. The company had reported a net profit of Rs 1.85 crore in the same quarter of the previous year.

Colgate-Palmolive (India) zoomed 7% to Rs 1,069, to its lifetime high, on the back of huge volumes.

All the sectoral indices were trading in the red. Metal and banking stocks were amongst the worst hit in trades thus far. BSE Metal index was down 1.6% or 192 points at 11,711, Bankex slipped 1.4% or 165 points to 11,288. Realty, Capital Goods, IT, Auto, Oil & Gas, FMCG and Consumer Durable indices were also trading weaker by 0.6-1.2% each.

Hindustan Zinc, Bhushan Steel, JSW Steel, SAIL, Coal India, Sesa Goa and NALCO were the top losers from the metal pack. IDBI Bank, Yes Bank, Indusind Bank, Canara Bank, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank were the prominent losers among the banking stocks.

The broader markets also slipped into the red. The BSE mid-cap index was down 40 points at 6,258 and the small-cap index was at 6,954, down 20 points.

Overall breadth was negative as 1,516 stocks were declining while 1,017 were advancing.