Weakness persists, Metal and IT stocks weigh

Markets continued to trade on a weak note in the noon deals on back of selling pressure visible across the board. The Sensex was down 136 points at 17,328 and the Nifty was at 5,215, down 44 points.

According to Ravi Nathani, technical analyst, "Nifty has a strong support level of 5,170 on the down side, close below this level would once again make bears stronger than bulls."

Meanwhile, on the macro economic front government released the inflation data for the week ended October 22. The primary articles inflation came in at 12.08% versus 11.75% during he previous week. Food article inflation grew at 12.2% compared to 11.43% and the fuel group inflation was recorded at 14.5%.

Metal and IT stocks were amongst the worst hit in trades thus far. Sterlite Industries was the top loser among the Sensex stocks, down 2.6% to Rs 120, Tata Steel was trading at Rs 455 weaker by 2.5%. Hindustan Unilever, HDFC Bank, Hindalco, Hero MotoCorp, Infosys, Tata Motors, ONGC, Larsen & Toubro, Sun Pharma and Jindal Steel also languished in trades, down 1.2-2% each.

On the other hand, BHEL jumped 2.6% to Rs 324. Tata Power, Cipla, Bharti Airtel, SBI, Maruti Suzuki, DLF, NTPC and Reliance Industries were among the notable gainers on the benchmark index.

Among the individual stocks, DB Realty which was trading higher by nearly 8% in the morning erased all its gains and was at Rs 71, down nearly 3% after the CBI special court dismissed the bail application of all the accused in the 2G spectrum case including Asif Balwa the promoter of the company.

OnMobile Global has rallied 9% to Rs 62.70 after reporting more than double year-on-year (y-o-y) net profit growth at Rs 47.72 crore for the second quarter ended September 2011 on the back of higher other income.

Jubilant Industries was trading higher by 2.4% at Rs 193 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) after the company reported strong set of second quarter numbers after the market hours yesterday.

All the sectoral indices were trading in the red barring the BSE Power index. Metal index was the top loser, down 1.5% or 175 points at 11,518. IT index was also trading lower by 83 points at
5,690. Bankex, Realty, Auto, Consumer Durables, FMCG, Oil & Gas, Capital Goods, Healthcare and PSU indices were trading lower by 0.2-1% each.

Among the IT stocks, Infosys was the top loser, down nearly 2% to Rs 2,777. Wipro, TCS, Oracle Financial Services Software, HCL Technologies, Mphasis, Patni Computer and Financial Technologies were also trading weaker by 0.2-1.8% each.

The broader markets were also trading lower. The BSE mid-cap index lost 0.4% to 6,229 and the small-cap index was down 21 points at 6,911 levels.

The overall breadth was negative as 1,474 stocks were declining while 1,048 were advancing.