Markets end in red

The Sensex finally ended (provisional) with a loss of 73 points at 17,855. The NSE Nifty was down 33 points at 5,354.
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(Updated at 1503 hrs)

The Sensex is marginally down in the negative territory, down 22 points at 17,907. The NSE Nifty is down 11 points at 5375.
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(Updated at 1400 hrs)

It is turning out into a subdued afternoon of trade. The markets are flirting around the previous day's levels and in fact slipped below the dotted line at one point, albeit momentarily. The Sensex is now quoting at 17965, higher by 37 points and the Nifty is at 5395, up nine points.

The morning looked very promising, with both the benchmark indices surpassing important psychological levels in the early part of trade. But, with the European markets surrendering their early gains and turning flat, and pre-market trading in Dow futures (around 25 points down) suggesting a soft opening on Wall Street, the domestic bourses have seemingly toed the global line.

DLF has zoomed by 1.9% at Rs 321 to top the gainers list on the BSE. Sterlite has hardened by 1.8% at Rs 166 and L&T has added 0.9% at Rs 1910. Wipro, Hindalco, and TCS are the other significant gainers. Index heavyweight RIL has edged higher by 0.3% at Rs 1059 and Tata Steel has shed nearly a per cent from its intra-day highs, but is still quoting at Rs 514, up 0.5%.

On the other hand, Jindal Steel has lost 0.9% at Rs 619, Tata Motors has weakened by 0.9% at Rs 817 and RCom has shed 0.9% at Rs 189.

The market breadth has turned neutral. Out of 2950 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1485 advancing stocks as against 1361 declines.