Markets flat; Bharti Airtel up 2%

Some amount of selling in the banking and the auto stocks erased all the gains on the Sensex. The index is now flat at 16,955, down 15 points. The NSE Nifty is at 5,074, down five points from its previous close.

Among the Sensex-30 stocks, Bharti Airtel and DLF have advanced over 2% each at Rs 300 and Rs 311, respectively.

ACC, Hero Honda, Grasim Industries and Reliance Communications have added 1% each at Rs 977, Rs 1,816, Rs 2,821 and Rs 165, respectively.

Tata Motors is the major loser, down 1% at Rs 802. It is followed by ITC, Wipro, HDFC Bank and BHEL, down 0.5% each.

The market breadth is fairly positive, out of 2,833 shares traded, 1,674 have advanced and 1,070 have delciend so far on the BSE.

Almost all the sectoral indices are trading flat, realty and capital goods index have added 0.5% each. The bankex on the other hand has slipped 0.5% each to 10,135.