Markets continue to trade in red

Markets recovered from its lows but was trading in the red. Sensex was down 262 points (1.5%) at 18,133. Nifty was down 58 points (1%) at 5,454.

Egyptian political turmoils and weak Asian market dragged the indices to multi-month lows in opening trades. The Sensex touched a low of 18,038 while Nifty slumped to 5,417.

Asian markets dropped on fears that the Egyptian unrest could spread to Middle Eastern countries. Nikkei was down 1% at 10,263. Hang Seng dropped 1% at 23,352. However, Shanghai Composite bucked trend and jumped 1% to 2,780.

Most of the sectoral indices were in red, led by IT and auto.

TCS shed 4% to Rs 1,135. HDFC, Tata Power, Sterlite and Bharti AIrtel dropped 3-4% each.

Bajaj Auto dropped 3% to Rs 1,218. Jaiprakash Associates, Hero Honda, Tata Motors, DLF and HDFC Bank were down over 2% each.

Other losers included Maruti Suzuki which tumbled after declaring results, Tata Steel, Jindal Steel and Infosys.

Meanwhile, ONGC jumped 2.8% to Rs 1,168 after it reported better-than-expected net profit for the third quarter ended December 2010 due to the enhancement in the crude oil prices and government-initiated increase in natural gas prices during this period.

The net profit of country’s energy giant more than doubled to Rs 7,080 crore in Q3FY11 from Rs 3,050 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Most analysts had expected the company to garner a net income of around Rs 5,410 crore. Sales revenues grew 21% to Rs 18,648 crore (Rs 15,357 crore) on a YoY basis.

Market heavyweight, Reliance was up marginally in trades, along with M&M and HUL.