Markets have a bad start

The markets have opened lower, in line with their global counterparts. The Sensex is quoting at 16249, weaker by 219 points and the Nifty is at 4877, down 65 points in early trades.  The midcap and small cap indices are around half a per cent lower at 6653 and 8401 respectively. Metal, realty and banking are the top sectoral losers on the BSE.

Wall Street had ended lower; Dow has shed 126 points and Nasdaq lost 15 points overnight. And Asia is in a sticky spot this morning, with the Hang Seng weakening by 366 points and Nikkei losing 231 points.

Our markets had ended only marginally higher on the previous day after erasing most of the early gains triggered by the Ambani brothers' weekend reconciliatory move, plagued by euro zone jitters in the wake of a Spanish bank bailout.

The Reliance Group stocks are seeing some profit-booking after the stellar gains of the previous day. Reliance Communications is the leading loser on the BSE, having weakened by 3.5% at Rs 142. RIL is quoting at Rs 1008, weaker by 1.2%. Reliance Natural Resources is at 53, weaker by 2.2%,  Reliance Infra is placed at Rs 1035, lower by 1.3% and  Reliance Capital is at Rs 661, down 1.5%.  Among the other major index losers, Tata Motors is at Rs 689, lower by 2.4% and ICICI Bank is at Rs 812, down 2.3%.

Among the gainers pack, M&M has strengthened by 1.3% at Rs 536 and Hero Honda has added 0.3% at Rs 1888.

The market breadth is negative. Out of 1609 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 465 advancing stocks as against 1092 declines.