The market, which briefly rebounded into positive territory earlier this morning, has slipped into the red once again due to a strong round of selling in bank, realty, auto and some capital goods, PSU and metal stocks.
Power, FMCG and consumer durables stocks have also drifted lower. Oil and pharma stocks are off their highs, while information technology stocks are mostly up in positive territory. Midcap and smallcap stocks are quite subdued at present.
At 17,351.26, nearly 100 points off the day's high of 17,445.92, the Sensex is now down 71.25 points or 0.41% from its previous closing mark. The Nifty, which advanced to 5218 earlier this morning, is currently down 0.48% or 24.95 points at 5185.45.
Mahindra & Mahindra, the most prominent loser in the Sensex, is down 2.5% at Rs 1160. State Bank of India, DLF, Sterlite Industries, ICICI Bank, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Sun Pharmaceuticals, BHEL and Hero Honda are down by 1% - 2%.
Bharti Airtel, Jaiprakash Associates, Maruti Suzuki, Larsen & Toubro, NTPC, ITC and Reliance Communications are also trading weak.
Tata Consultancy Services has gained over 3% on sustained buying at the counter. Wipro is up nearly 2.5%. Infosys Technologies remains steady with a gain of around 1.5%.
ACC, Ambuja Cements, ABB, SAIL, BPCL, Cipla and Siemens are among the other notable gainers.
Apart from DLF, India Bulls Real Estate, Orbit Corporation, Phoenix Mills, HDIL, Anant Raj Industries, Parsvnath Developers, Peninsula Land, Ansal Properties and Unitech are among the notable losers in the realty space.
Bank stocks Indian Overseas Bank, Kotak Bank, IDBI Bank, Punjab National Bank, Axis Bank, Canara bank, Yes Bank and Bank of Baroda are trading weak.
Mastek, a leading IT solutions player with global operations in providing new technology and IP-led enterprise solutions to insurance, government and financial service organisations worldwide, has announced that it has won its first customer in the US for ElixirTM Distribution Management solution, creating an important breakthrough for itself. The IT major posted a net profit of Rs 15.94 crore and revenue of Rs 116.51 crore for the quarter ended December 2009. The stock, which opened on a weak note this morning, is trading with a modest gain at Rs 401 at present.
Bajaj Auto is trading in positive territory despite giving up most of its early gains. The stock, which rose to Rs 1746 in early trade following a sharp jump in its third quarter earnings, is currently up 1% at Rs 1,713. The company has reported 189% growth in its third quarter net profit, which stood at Rs 475.14 crore as compared to Rs 164.27 crore in the same quarter last fiscal. Its total income for the quarter under review has gone up by around 56% to Rs 3,330.68 crore from Rs 2,140.98 crore in December 2008 quarter.
