Markets witness sudden sell-off in mid-noon trades

The markets has seen a sharp cut in the last few minutes of trades owing to fresh selling in realty, FMCG and power stocks. The Sensex which exhibited flat trades for the most part of the trading day, has now shed 181 points at 18,288.

The Nifty has declined 61 points at 5,476.

Tata Power and Reliance Infrastructure have plunged over 3% each to Rs 1,254 and Rs 624, respectively.

Reliance Communications has shed 2.7% at Rs 92. Bharti Airtel and Hindustan Unilever have dropped 2% each.

Cipla, ITC, NTPC, DLF, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Jaiprakash Associates are the other prominent losers.

However, Hero Honda continues to trade on a firm note, with a gain of 5.5% at Rs 1,689. Reliance and ONGC are the only other gainers in the Sensex 30.

In the broader markets, the BSE Realty index has plunged nearly 2% to 2,086. The FMCG and Power indices have dropped 1.5% each at 3,626 and 2,587, respectively.

The market breadth is negative - out of 2,677 stocks traded so far, 1,447 have declined and 1,087 have advanced on the BSE.