Markets slip from day highs; Rupee gains

Weakness in counters like ITC, Tata Motors and L&T weigh on the indices

Markets have slipped from the highs in early noon deals on account of increasing weakness in counters like ITC, Tata Motors and L&T. At 1235 hrs, the Sensex was up 154 points at 18,706 and the Nifty gained 45 points at 5,634.

Earlier in the day, the Sensex had touched a high of 18,775 and the Nifty was at a high at 5,662.

The rupee gained, backing off from a record low hit in the previous session, as the country's current account deficit narrowed in the January-March quarter, easing some concerns about the funding of the deficit. The rupee rose to 60.38 to the dollar, recovering from a record low of 60.76 hit on Wednesday.

In the broader markets, the midcap index turned negative with a negative bias while smallcap index was up marginally up 0.2%, both underperformed, as compared to the 0.8% gain on the Sensex.

Asian shares extended gains for a second day on Thursday, buoyed by hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve will not rush to end its stimulus program, and by further signs that stresses in China's banking system are easing.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 1.8%, adding to Wednesday's 1.9% climb which broke a four-day losing streak.

Hong Kong shares rose 1.1% after touching a one-week high on better-than-expected China industrial profits data.

Shanghai shares rose as much as 1.2% as fears of a credit crunch receded, boosting financials.

In Europe, CAC and DAX started in the red, losing 0.1-0.3% while FTSE opened higher by 0.2%.

Back home, among the sectoral indices, Consumer Durables index lost ground by nearly 3% followed by the Capital Goods, FMCG and Power indices which all gave off 0.1-0.4%.

The ones leading the gains were Oil & Gas index which was up 2.3% along with Health care, IT, Teck, Bankex, PSU, Realty and Auto indices which gained 0.2-1.8%.

Te leading gains among the Sensex-30 were Sun Pharma, ONGC and Baja Auto which gained 3-4%.

Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, Dr Reddys Lab, Sterlite, Mahindra & Mahindra and Cipla which gained 1.8-2.4% were teh other notable gainers.

Among the ones in the red were Jindal Steel, Tata Motors, NTPC, ITC, Maruti Suzuki, Tata Steel and L&T which lost 0.6-2%.

The market breadth was negative. 1,039 stocks declined while 993 stocks advanced on the BSE.