Markets slip in noon trades

The Sensex is quoting at 16610, weaker by 170 points and the Nifty is at 4981, down 52 points.

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(Updated at 1426pm)

The markets have suddenly turned soft after trading sideways through most of the day. The Sensex is quoting at 16645, weaker by 145 points and the Nifty has dropped below the 5000 mark at 4995, down 38 points. The midcap and smallcap sectors have' also given up their gains and are trading flat at 9787 and 8521 respectively.

Hindalco leads the losers list on the BSE. The copper major has slid by 3.8% at Rs 134. Bharti Airtel has weakened by 2.8% at Rs 260 and RCom has shed 2.6% at Rs 171. Among the other significant losers, ICICI Bank has lost 2.1% at Rs 824, Hero Honda has shed 2.1% at Rs 1936 and DLF has lost 1.9% at Rs 259. And index heavyweight RIL is poorer by 0.8% at Rs 1000.

On the other hand, Tata Power has added 1.7% at Rs 1245 to be the top gainer on the BSE. HDFC has gained 1.2% at Rs 2711 and Cipla has added 0.8% at Rs 324.

The market breadth has turned weak. Out of 2852 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 1341 advancing stocks as against 1403 declines.