Markets close in the green, bankex gains

The markets closed the day in the green with the Sensex adding 19 points to close at 18,012 and the Nifty gained 12 points at 5,398.
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(Updated at 1436 hrs)

The markets have slipped into the negative after trading flat in the past hour. The Sensex has slipped below the 18,000 mark for the first time during the day after opening above the mark. The index is currently down 32 points at 17,962 and the Nifty is flat with a negative bias at 5,378.

Earlier in the day, the Sensex had opened in the green and more importantly, above the 18k this morning, which was a welcome relief after the mayhem witnessed on the previous day. But the benchmnark indices have been unable to build on from thereon. However during the early afternoon the index touched an intra day high of 18,110 as the European markets opened firm and most Asian markets staged an intraday recovery.

Among the sectoral indices, yesterday's top gainer FMCG index and realty has slipped in the afternoon trades, down 1% each. Banking index on the other hand contiuues to winess some buying interest after the selling winessed in the past few days. The index has gained 0.5%.The draggers in the realty space are D B Realty down 8% followed by Orbit Corporation, DLF, Godrej Properties losing 2% each.

Among the gainers in the Sensex stocks are L&T, Hero Honda,ICICI Bank and Cipla down 1% each.

Reliance Infrastructure down 2%, ITC, DLF, TCS, SBI, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Motors and Hindalco losing 1% each are the losers among the Sensex stocks.

The market breadth is very negative. Of the total 2806 stocks traded on the BSE, 1512 stocks have declined while 1180 advanced.