Sensex up over 200 points as buying gathers momentum

As selling pressure gathered force, the market, which opened on a weak note, tracking the sell-off on the Asian bourses, slipped deeper into the red in mid morning trade today. With most of the front line stocks still reeling under pressure, the benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty are down sharply in the red now.

Besides weak global cues, profit taking after recent strong gains is also contributing to the decline this morning. Capital goods stocks, led by BHEL, are among the most prominent losers. Power, bank, automobile and consumer durables stocks are also trading notably lower.

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Oil, metal and realty stocks too are mostly down in negative territory. Information technology, FMCG and healthcare stocks, which found some support earlier this morning, are drifting lower now on profit taking.

The Sensex, which tumbled to 16,994.22 a little while ago, is now down 201.53 points or 1.2% at 17,032.45. The Nifty is down 69.55 points or 1.3% at 5135.15.

BHEL, down 8.2% at Rs 251, continues to languish deep down in negative territory following a significant drop in order flow. The company reported a modest 2.3% surge in its quarterly earnings.

Sterlite Industries has lost around 4.3%. Bharti Airtel, Jaiprakash Associates, IDFC and Mahindra & Mahindra are trading lower by 3% - 3.5%. BPCL, Hindalco, ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, Cairn India, Reliance Industries and SAIL are down 2% - 2.8%.

Larsen & Toubro, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, HCL Technologies, Tata Steel, HDFC, Power Grid Corporation, Kotak Bank, Infosys, Cipla, DLF, ACC and Hindustan Unilever are also down with notable losses.

Reliance Power is up more than 3.5% on reports the company has held initial talks with Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Limited to jointly develop their adjoining coal-bed methane (CBM) blocks.

Sun Pharmaceuticals is trading higher by over 2%. GAIL, Reliance Communications, Jindal Steel, ONGC, Hero Motocorp and Ambuja Cements are up with modest gains.

Siemens is down 0.7% at Rs 748. The company has announced the start of operations at two greenfield factories in Goa, with an investment of around Rs. 200 crores. The factories are equipped with state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment using lean processes similar to Siemens' award-winning factory at Berlin.

Gujarat Fluorochemicals has gained over 6% after the company reported a more than six-fold jump in net profit at Rs 218.98 crore for the quarter ended December on the back of higher sales income. The company had reported a net profit of Rs 33.65 crore in the corresponding quarter of previous fiscal. Net sales jumped 169% to Rs 583 crore from Rs 217 crore during the recently concluded quarter.

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Indiabulls Financial Services Ltd has posted a net profit of Rs 179.01 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2011 as compared to Rs 173.98 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010. Total income increased from Rs 575.41 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 to Rs 745.59 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2011. The stock is down 0.5% at Rs 182.50 at present.

Bhushan Steel Ltd shares are up 0.6% at Rs 352. The company has posted a net profit of Rs 276.62 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2011 as compared to Rs 280.35 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010.