Markets: Another sluggish start

It has been another sober start to the day's proceedings on the bourses. In what has been reminiscent of the trading activity oin the early part of Wednesday, the markets are trading in a directionless manner this morning. The Sensex is quoting at 17954, lower by two points and the Nifty is at 5395, down two points.

The overreach of the global markets is clearly visible. The US stocks had edged lower overnight due to weak durable goods figures and a downbeat assessment of the economy by the Fed. The Dow had dropped 39 points to 10,497 and Nasdaq fell 23 points to 2,264. And the Asian markets are weak in early trades; The Hang Seng has shed 63 points and Nikkei has lost 52 points.

DLF has continued its poor run of the previous day, shedding 1% at Rs 308 to emerge as the top loser on the BSE. The realty major has reported 3.8% jump in its consolidated net profit for the quarter ended June 30. SBI has lost 0.9% at Rs 2446 and ONGC has shed 0.8% at Rs 1245. Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever and Infosys are the other major losers.

On the other hand, HDFC has strengthened by 1.3% at Rs 2934, Cipla has gaiend 0.7% at Rs 332 and Maruti has added 0.7% at Rs 1211.  And HCL Tech, which saw its Q4 profit dip to 1259 crore, has zoomed 3.9% at Rs 387. And RIL, which had corrected more than 3% in the previous trading session on earnings concerns, has edged higher by 0.3% at Rs 1024.

Among the major result candidates for today, ONGC is trading lower by 0.4% at Rs 1250 and Sail has shed 1.3% at Rs 205, while Hero Honda has added 0.4% at Rs 1862.

The market breadth is positive. Out of 1824 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1137 advancing stocks as against 619 declines.