Markets erase morning gains

Markets fell sharply in noon trades as heavyweight RIL shares slipped. The Sensex, after touching a high of 18,673 in morning trades, slipped over 200 points to a low of 18,453. Sensex was down 22 points at 18,472. Nifty was down four points at 5,544.

Mukesh Ambani's RIL contributed most to the fall and was down 0.6% at Rs 946. Ambani, in teh company's 37th annual genral meeting, said that the company will become debt free in the current financial year.

BSE mid and small-cap indices continued to trade in the green - up 0.05% and 0.28%, respectively.

Among the sectoral indices BSE PSU, healthcare. metal and oil & gas indices shed 0.5% each.

Tata Motors shed 2% at Rs 1,026. BHEL dropped 1.5% to Rs 1,905. Hindalco, HDFC, HUL and Jindal Steel dropped 1% each.

Meanwhile, Anil Ambani group company shares rose after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) rejected a plea seeking a probe against him in a case of alleged rigging of the sale of telecommunication licenses and bandwidth in 2008. Among them, Reliance Communications gained 6% at Rs 95. Reliance Infra added 3.2% to Rs 571.

Auto stocks were up. Mahindra & Mahindra and Bajaj Auto added 0.5% aech. IT stocks- Infosys, TCS and Wipro were in the green.

BSE market breadth was fairly positive. Out of 2,678 stocks traded, 1,440 advanced while 1,119 declined.