Banking, metal stocks drag Sensex deeper into red

The Sensex is now quoting at 16,663, down 280 points and the NSE Nifty is 90 points down at 4995.

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(Updated at 1240pm)

The Sensex has slipped deeper into the red owing to selling in the metal and the banking stocks. The Sensex is now at 16,776, down 168 points and the NSE Nifty is 55 points down at 5,032.

Among the Sensex-30 stocks, Jaiprakash Associates has slipped 3% to Rs 121. The other losers on the BSE are Unitech, Axis Bank, Fortis Healthcare and Bharat Forge have slipped 2-3% each.

While on the other hand Maruti Suzuki has gained 4% to Rs 1,291 and Reliance Infrastructure has added 2% to Rs 1,089, respectively.

The other major gainers are Mahindra & Mahindra, Cipla, DLF and TCS, up 1-2% each on the BSE.

The market breadth is fairly positive, out of 2,699 shares traded, 1,533 have advanced and 1,073 have declined so far on the BSE.

The BSE midcap and the smallcap indices are marginally up at 0.3% and 1%, respectively.

Healthcare index is the major gainer on the sectoral indices, up 1% at 5,543. It is followed by auto, up 0.5% at 7,734.

On the other hand the bankex and the metal indices are down 1% each. Indusind Bank has slipped 4% to Rs 188 and Axis Bank have declined 3%, respectively on the bankex index.