Markets near day's low

Markets slipped further in noon deals and were trading near the intra-day lows. The Sensex was at 16,025, down 120 points and the Nifty was at 4,800, lower by 40 points. Earlier in the day, the Sensex traded in a range of 152 points and touched a high of 16,256.

Meanwhile, the European markets have opened in the red. The CAC 40 index has opened lower by 3,101, lower by 0.6%, DAX and FTSE also opened lower by over 1.5% each.

Back home, most of the sectoral indices were trading in the negative zone. BSE Realty, Metal, Power and Bankex indices were among the top sectoral losers. On the other hand, auto, technology and healthcare stocks witnessed some buying.

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Updated at 1140 hours)

The markets have lost some ground and are trading flat in late morning trades as investors avoided taking positions ahead of United States' Federal Reserve speech. The BSE Sensex is at 16,164, up 18 points and the S&P CNX Nifty is at 4,843, up 4 points. Earlier in the day, the BSE benchmark index had touched a high of 16,256 and a low of 16,114.

The broader markets are weak as the mid-cap index is at 6,144, down 0.55 and the small-cap index is at 7,092, down 0.1%.

Meanwhile, the Asian markets are trading on a mixed note with the Nikkei at 8,786, up 0.2%, while the Shanghai Composite and Hang Seng indices are down 0.5% and 0.1%, repsectively.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE Realty, Power and Metal indices are leading the losses, down 1-2% each.  Sesa Goa, JSW Steel, Hindalco Industries, SAIL and NALCO, down 1-3% each, are the prominent losers from the metal space.

Mahindra & Mahindra has moved up 2% at Rs 711 and is the top gainer on the Sensex. It is closely followed by Infosys, Hero MotoCorp, Tata Motors and TCS, up 1-2% each. DLF, Tata Power, JP Associates, Hindalco Industries and SBI, down 2-3% each, are the top losers among the Sensex 30 stocks.

Among individual stocks, Tata Power has slipped almost 3% at Rs 1,012 in morning trades after the foreign broking house downgraded the stock and reduced the price target to Rs 900 a share.

Kingfisher Airlines is trading lower by 2% at Rs 25 after the board of directors approved raising up to Rs 2,000 crore through a rights issue.The board also amended the terms for the issue of optionally convertible debentures that were issued on January 3, the company said.

The overall market breadth is negative as 1,233 stocks have declined against 1,093 advancing ones.