Markets quiet in noon trades

The markets are subdued on the back of weakness on the global front. With gains in heavyweight counters such as Maruti, ITC and ICICI Bank have been nullified by weakness in the likes of Jindal Steel and ONGC, the Sensex is quoting at 18223, higher by 14 points and the Nifty is at 5482, down five points. The midcap index is at 6949, lower by 13 points and the smallcap index is at 8357, down three points.

The markets had rebounded this morning after three successive days of losses, but were unable to sustain the gains for long. And any hopes of a revival have been nipped in the bud by the all-encompassing weakness; the European markets, including the CAC, DAX and FTSE are trading lower by about a percent each after Moody's placed Spain on a review for a possible downgrade, with concerns that a Greek rescue package has not laid contagion fears to rest. Asian markets such as Hang Seng, Nikkei, Taiwan and Seoul have also lost in the region of half a percent to a percent each.

Jindal Steel has extended its previous session's 5% losses by shedding another 4% at Rs 587 after Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde put it in the dock for what it termed “getting illegal supply of iron ore” far in excess of what it was permitted. ONGC has lost 2.4% at Rs 269 after reporting a 12% rise in net profit for the quarter ended June despite a 118% jump in the subsidy burden. Jindal Steel, DLF, BHEL and Hero Honda are the other significant losers.

On the other hand, Maruti has raced ahead by 2% at Rs 1210 on reports that workers have ended their short-lived strike at Maruti Suzuki's plant at Manesar in Haryana.  ITC is trading at a life-time high of Rs 209 after reporting a 25% year-on-year growth in net profit at Rs 1,333 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2011. And ICICI Bank has edged higher by 0.9% at Rs 1027 ahead of its Q1 results scheduled later in the day.

The market breadth is negative. Out of 2763 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1205 advancing stocks as against 1436 declines.