Banks, oil stocks drag markets

The markets continued to trade with a negative bias in the past one hour of trade on back of selling pressure witnessed by the banking, energy, PSU and FMCG stocks. The Sensex was near its day's low level of 18,688. The Sensex shed 38 points at 18,706 and the Nifty was at 5,618, lower by 14 points.

Meanwhile, the European markets were also trading in the negative territory. FTSE was at 6,006, lower by 18 points, CAC 40 index shed 16 points to 3,963 and the DAX slipped 17 points to 7,423.

Back home, ICICI Bank continued to remain the top loser among the Sensex stocks. The stock had shed 1.7% to Rs 1,078. ONGC slipped 1.6% to Rs 272. Reliance Communication was also trading lower by 1.4% at Rs 98. Tata Power, SBI, Sterlite Industries, Hero Honda, Wipro, Hindustan Unilever, J P Associates, Mahindra & Mahindra and Infosys were also among the laggards. At the same time Larsen & Toubro, NTPC, Hindalco, DLF, HDFC, Tata Motors and Bharti Airtel advanced 0.24-1.15% each in trades so far.

On the sectoral front Bankex remained the top sectoral loser, down 1% to 12,900. BSE Oil & Gas index which was trading marginally lower slipped further into the red and was down 0.4% to 8919. PSU, FMCG, IT, Auto, Power and Healthcare indices were also trading in the negative zone. Meanwhile Consumer Durables, Capital Goods, Realty and Metal indices were among the notable gainers on the sectoral charts.

Canara Bank remained the top loser among the banking stocks. The stock slipped 2.6
526. ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Union Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, SBI, Bank of Baroda and PNB were also trading in the red.

Among the consumer durable stocks VIP Industries, Rajesh Exports, Titan Industries, Whirlpool and Bajaj Electricals were among the top gainers.

Aviation stocks like Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines and Spicejet were trading lower in the trades today as the crude oil prices edged higher.

The broader markets were also trading on a flat note. The BSE mid-cap index was down three points at 6,955 and the small-cap index was higher by 11 points at 8,349.

The overall breadth turned neutral as 1,352 stocks were advancing while 1,321 stocks were declining.