Metal, realty stocks drag markets

Weakness in the metal and realty stocks have plunged the index deeper into the red. The negative opening of the european markets have also added to the sentiment. The Sensex is now at 17,238, down 145 points.

Among the Sensex-30 stocks,Hindalco is the major dragger, down 5% at Rs 165. Tata Steel, Sterlite Industries, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank and Grasim Industries have declined 1-3% each on the BSE.

While HDFC and Mahindra & Mahindra are up 0.5% each at Rs 2,825 and Rs 529, respectively.

The market breadth is negative, out of 2,924 shares traded, 1,837 have declined and 985 have advanced so far on the BSE.

All the sectoral indices are in red, metal index is the major dragger, down 3% and realty has slipped 2% on the index.