Markets have recovered from early lows on account of gains in FMCG and realty shares. The BSE benchmark index, Sensex is down 40 points at 16873 and the Nifty slipped 10 points at 5104. Earlier, the Sensex had touched a low of 16,742 and the Nifty dropped to 5,063.
After opening marginally lower due to subdued global cues, the benchmark indices had slipped further in early trades owing to the selling pressure in the IT counters after Cognizant lowered its 2012 guidance.
The broader markets, however, remained in the green with the smallcap and the midcap indices advancing 0.2% each as compared to the Sensex, down 0.5%
In the Asian markets, except Shanghai Composite all the other markets are trading in the green. Nikkei, Straits and Kospi are up 0.4-0.6%. Meanwhile Hang Seng is flat with a positive bias at 20,564.
Among the sectoral indices, FMCG, PSU and realty saw some buying interest, recording gains between 0.5-1 %. Metal and Health Care remained flat. However, IT index recouped some of its morning losses and is down 3%. The intensified selling in this counter was due to IT services company Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp revising its 2012 guidance downwards by nearly $200 million (around Rs 1,066 crore today), due to a slower than anticipated acceleration in demand.
The other prominent losers in the sectoral pack were Capital Goods, Power and Bankex which shed 0.5-0.7%.
The top gainers among the Sensex pack are Gail India, Coal India, DLF, ITC, Sun Pharma and HUL up 1-3.5%
Among the losers are IT majors, TCS, Infosys down 3-4% followed by BHEL, Tata Motors,Tata Power and Tata Steel down 1-2%. Index heavyweight, Reliance Industries is down 1%.
Among individual stocks, Jubilant Life Sciences rallied 8% to Rs 192 after the pharmaceutical company said it expects to achieve sustainable growth in revenue and EBITDA margins in the current financial year.
Also, Shalimar Paints soared almost 20% to Rs 444 on reporting a healthy 69% year-on-year growth in net profit at Rs 6 crore for the quarter ended March 2012.
The market breadth is positive with 1286 advances and 853 declines.
