Sensex slips deeper into the red, loses nearly 150 points

The market, which staged a recovery of sorts after a weak start, plunged deeper into the red in mid morning trade and is still seen struggling with several blue chip stocks trading with notable losses.

A weak trend in Asian markets amid renewed worries about the financial situtation in Greece has rendered the mood bearish this morning. Profit taking after the previous session's strong upmove is also contributing to the weakness in the market.

The Sensex, which tumbled to 18,043.32, is now down 141.82 points or 0.8% at 18,060.59. The Nifty is down with a loss of 44.45 points or 0.8% at 5487.50.

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Metal, oil, consumer durables, automobile and bank stocks are mostly trading weak. PSU, technology, healthcare, realty and FMCG stocks finding modest support. Capital goods stocks, which declined a bit sharply after a weak start, are slightly off their lows now.

Coal India is down with a sharp loss of 4.4%. Sterlite Industries and Hindalco are trading lower by 4.3% and 4.1% respectively, while Tata Steel is down with a loss of 2.2%.

Tata Motors, which ended on a high note on Wednesday, is down by over 3.5% now due to profit taking. Mahindra & Mahindra is down with a loss of 2.3%. Reliance Industries is down nearly 3% and Sun Pharmaceuticals is trading lower by about 2.5%.

GAIL India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC and Hindustan Unilever are also trading weak.

Among the gainers in the Sensex, Jindal Steel is up 3.6%. BHEL is up nearly 3% and Tata Power is up by 2.3%. Cipla, NTPC, Maruti Suzuki, Hero Motocorp and ONGC are up 1% - 2.2%. State Bank of India, Wipro, ITC, Larsen & Toubro and DLF are up with modest gains.

Consumer durables stocks Titan Industries, VIP Industries, Bajaj Electricals, Whirlpool, C Mahendra Exports and Videocon Industries are trading lower by 1.3% - 1.8%.

IndusInd Bank, down 3.6%, is the biggest loser in the Bankex. Bank of India, Union Bank of India, Axis Bank and Canara Bank are trading lower by 1.4% - 2.2%.

Oriental Bank of Commerce, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Mysore, Indian Bank, Andhra Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Central Bank of India and State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur are down 2% - 4% now.

Power stocks are having a good outing following the government directing Coal India Ltd to import coal to ensure supplies for 20 years to 50,000-mw power plants that are proposed to be commissioned by March 2015. Mirroring their surge, the BSE Power index has moved up by over 1.6% now. Apart from Tata Power and BHEL, Neyveli Lignite, Adani Power, Lanco Infrastructure, Tata Power, PTC India, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, Suzlon Energy, Reliance Infrastructure and Thermax are also trading notably higher.

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Gayatri Projects is up nearly 14% at Rs 183 ahead of the proposed rights issue from the company. The company has fixed February 23, as the record date for the purpose of determining the shareholders who would be eligible to apply for equity shares in the proposed rights issue.

McNally Bharat Engineering Company Ltd has said that MBE Coal & Minerals teclmology GmbH, Cologne, a 100% step subsidiary of the Company has received a letter of award from CMP regarding the supply of a complete flotation system, including CMT Cologne Pneuflot technology. The delivery time is scheduled in November 2012. The stock is up 4.2% at Rs 121.50 at present.