Markets rebound; Nifty above 5,400

Gains in heavyweights like ITC, ICICI Bank and Tata Steel aided the recovery

Markets recovered from the early morning lows on account of some buying in heavyweight names like ITC, ICICI Bank and Tata Steel.

At 1140 hrs, the Sensex was down 30 points at 18,277 and the Nifty was at 5,407, losing seven points. At the same time, the Rupee was quoting at 63.69 to a Dollar.

Earlier, in the morning trades, the Sensex had touched a low of 17,971 and the Nifty had touched a low of 5,306.

In the broader markets, the smallcap index was flat with a positive bias while the midcap index was down 0.2% as compared to the 0.5% cut on the BSE benchmark index.

Among the sectoral indices, Power, Bankex, FMCG, Realty and Metal indices were the only ones in the green, up 0.2-1.3%.

Among the ones in the red, Consumer Durables and Auto indices were down 2-3%. Health Care, IT, Teck, PSU, Capital Goods and Oil & Gas indices were also down 0.3-1%.

The top gainers among the Sensex-30 were metal names like Tata Steel, Jindal Steel, Sterlite and Hindalco, up 1-2.6%.

FMCG majors, ITC and Hindustan Unilever were up 1.5% and 0.7% respectively.

From the banking space, ICICI Bank and SBI were up 0.6% each.

Among the ones in the red were Tata Motors, Sun Pharma, Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, TCS and Wipro down 1.5-3.3%.

The market breadth was positive owing to the gains in broader market. 903 stocks advanced while 868 stocks declined on the BSE.