Sensex down 100 pts

The markets continued to witness selling pressure in the noon deals. The Sensex was down 122 points at 18,736 and the S&P CNX Nifty was at 5,618, lower by 42 points.

Meanwhile, the European markets are also trading in the red. FTSE has shed 7 points at 5,983, DAX was at 7,342, lower by 61 points and the CAC 40 index was down 38 points or 1% at 3,875.

Back home, Hindalco remained the top loser among the Sensex stocks, down 4.4% at Rs 180. Infosys shed 2.3% to Rs 2,908. DLF, State Bank of India, Maruti Suzuki, TCS, Wipro, HDFC Bank, BHEL, J P Associates and Tata Steel were also trading lower by 1-2% each.
At the same time Reliance Communications, ONGC, Mahindra & Mahindra, ITC, Tata Power, Sterlite Industries and Reliance Industries were among the notable gainers.

The IT, realty, metal and banking stocks reeled under the selling pressure. The BSE IT index was the top sectoral loser. The index slipped 1.9% or 118 points to 6,081 levels. Realty index was down 1.7% at 2,190 and the Metal index declined 1.6% at 3,679. BSE Banking index also reeled under the selling pressure as the index slipped 1.4% to 12,734. On the other hand FMCG, Consumer Durables, Oil & Gas, Auto and healthcare indices were among the few notable gainers.

Infosys, Mphasis, Wipro, TCS, HCL Technologies, Patni Computer and Financial Technologies were the top losers among the IT stocks.

Broader markets were also trading lower. The BSE mid-cap index was at 6,973, lower by 23 points and the mid-cap index was lower by 21 points at 8,354.