Markets remain under pressure

Weakness continues to persist on the bourses in noon deals on the back of the loan bribery scam; The Sensex has recovered from its intra-day lows, but is still down 143 points at 19,174 and Nifty is down 37 points at 5762. The Sensex is down 10% from its all-time closing high recorded on November 5.

Jaiprakash Associates, DLF, Reliance Infrastructure, Sterlite Industries, Hindalco Industries and Reliance Communication are among the top losers on the Sensex. TCS, State Bank of India, Cipla and Hero Honda are the significant gainers.

The broader markets are trading near the day's low, The mid-cap index has shed nearly 5% or 386 points and is at 7466 and the small-cap index is lower by 611 points at 9352. The BSE 500 market breadth is extremely negative as 13 stocks are advancing while 486 stocks are declining.

Core Projects is the top loser among the mid-cap stocks down 30% at Rs 177, ARSS Infra Projects, Amtek Auto, Parsvanath Developers and Shree Ashtvinayak Cine Vision are other loser among the mid-cap stocks down nearly 20% each. Among the small-cap stocks Bheema Cements is the top loser down 20% at Rs 114 followed by Murli Industries, Orbit Corp and Shrenuj down more than 16% each.

The Real estate stocks continue to witness the selling pressure for the second day, the BSE Realty index is down nearly 9% or 248 points at 2628. Parsvanath Developers leads the losers chart among the Realty stocks, Orbit Corp, Indiabulls Real Estate, D B Realty and HDIL are trading lower by more than 8.7% each. Consumer Durables, Metal, PSU and Power indices are trading lower by more than 2.5% each. While the BSE IT index is the only index which is in green.

The overall market breadth is extremely negative; out of 2918 stocks traded on the BSE 2592 stocks are declining while 270 stocks are advancing.