Markets recover from day's low

The markets have retraced around 100 points since early noon on account of buying interest at lower levels. The Sensex is quoting at 19603, weaker by 97 points and the Nifty is at 5875, down 35 points. There is outperformance on the broader market front; the midcap index is at 7134, up 35 points and the smallcap index is at 8664, up 61 points.

The BSE benchmark had reversed direction after hitting 3-month highs at the onset of the trading session to touch an intra-day low of 19,523 on the back of profit-booking in IT and banking stocks, with oil prices hovering near two-and-a-half year highs acting as the dampener. But a partial retracement of the losses on the banking counters led to a partial recovery on the bourses thereafter.

Meanwhile, the Euopean indices including the FTSE, CAC and DAX are trading lower in early trades.

The top losers on the Sensex are M&M (weakened by 1.5% at Rs 732), Tata Power (slid 1.5% at Rs 1317) and DLF (lost 1.3% at Rs 267).  Wipro, HDFC and ONGC are the other significant losers.

On the other hand, RCom has strengthened by 1.8% at Rs 111 to emerge as the leading Sensex gainers. RCom chairman Anil Ambani was questioned by Parliament's Public Accounts Committee during the day in connection with alleged irregularities in the 2G spectrum allocation. Hindalco (gained 1.7% at Rs 219) and BHEL (up 1.5% at Rs 2207) are the other significant gainers. 

The market breadth continues to be positive. Of the total 2845 stocks traded on the BSE, 1632 stocks have advanced while 1125 stocks have declined.