Markets have pared the day's gain and entered into negative terrain amid weak cues from Europe with engineering major L&T leading the decline.
The Sensex was down 9 points at 16,021 and the Nifty was down 4 points at 4,855.
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(Updated at 13:02 hrs)
Markets have given off some of its early gains. The Sensex is now up 53 points at 16,083. Nifty is up 17 points at 4,875.
Meanwhile, in Asia, the Nikkei added 1% as upbeat Japanese economic growth data trumped worry about Europe and investors shopped for bargains.
BSE FMCG index has added 2% to 4,648 in noon trades. Realty, metal and banking shares are up around a per cent each. However, weakness can be witnessed in consumer durables and capital goods indices. IT shares are also in the red.
Cipla has slumped 3.2% to Rs 312. Larsen & Toubro has shed 1.8% to Rs 1183. Nomura has downgraded Larsen & Toubro to 'reduce' from 'buy', and nearly halved target price to Rs 992 from Rs 1,691. Among other losers are Bajaj Auto, Mahindra & Mahindra, Sun Pharma, Wipro and TCS.
On the gaining side are ITC and DLF - both up 2.5%. ITC has moved up on reports that the company has signed an agreement with the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka to build a luxury hotel in Colombo.
Tata Motors, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Jindal Steel and Tata Steel have advanced 1-2% each. Market heavyweight - Reliance Industries has added 1% at Rs 684. BHarti Airtel, NTPC and Hindustan Unilever are up marginally.
Indoco Remedies is trading higher by 5% at Rs 61.70 ahead of the bonus issue and stock split proposed by the board of directors.
BSE market breadth is positive. Out of 2,565 stocks traded, 1,392 shares have advanced while 1,054 shares have delcined.
