Markets dip in late-noon trades

The markets are trading with a negative bias in the later part of the noon session. The Sensex is at 19011, lower by 35 points and the Nifty is at 5697, down 13 points. But the broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices; the BSE mid-cap index was up 34 points at 7210 and the small-cap index was at 8967 up 61 points.

IT continues to see profit-booking this afternoon post the stellar gains of the previous session and Wipro's lower-than-expected quarterly numbers seemed to have only hastened the process. Wipro is the top loser, shedding 4.4% at Rs 456, on the BSE. Infosys has lost 1.3% at Rs 3244 and TCS has lost 0.1% at Rs 1209. Among the other major losers, ONGC shed 2.4% at Rs 1106 after announcing that a leakage had been detected in a pipeline at its off-shore operations about 80 kilometres off the Mumbai coast.

The stocks that are acting as a counter-balance include the likes of SBI and RIL. SBI has strengthened by 2.3% at Rs 2595 and RIL, which is witnessing buying interest below the 4-figure nmark, is up 2% at Rs 989.

The market breadth is positive, though. Out of 2875 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1521 advancing stocks as against 1239 declines.