Markets recover; Nifty above 5,200

Rupee recovers as much as 68.02 per dollar, after hitting a record low of 68.75.

Markets recovered from day lows as buying in heavyweights like ITC, TCS and Infosys managed to cap the losses in noon deals. At 1315 hrs, the Sensex was down 133 points at 17,835 and the Nifty slipped 52 points to trade at 5,236.

In the broader markets, both the mid and the smallcap indices were down 1-2%, underperforming the BSE benchmark index, which was down 0.9%.

Meanwhile, the Rupee recovered a bit from its all-time low level due to dollar sale by state-run banks acting on behalf of the Reserve Bank of India. The currency recovered as much as 68.02 per dollar, after hitting a record low of 68.75. It was still way below its Tuesday's close of 66.24/25.

Barring IT index, all the other sectoral indices were in the red.

PSU, Realty, Oil & Gas, Bankex and Capital goods indices down 2-3.7% were the major sectoral losers.

The gainers among the Sensex-30 were TCS, Wipro, Jindal Steel and ITC up 2-3%.

Infosys, Tata Power, NTPC, Tata Steel, Tata Motors and Hindalco up 0.6-1.7% were the only other gainers.

The major losers were ONGC, HDFC, Gail India and Coal India down 4-8%.

Bharti Airtel, Maruti Suzuki, SBI, Mahindra & Mahindra and ICICI Bank down 2-3% were the other notable losers.

The market breadth was negative. 1,434 stocks declined while 560 stocks advanced on the BSE.