Sensex attempts to regain lost ground

The Sensex is trying to recover some of its lost ground after touching a low of 18,999 in the morning trades. The Sensex is down 51 points at 19,027 and the Nifty lost 19 points at 5,709. In the broader markets, the midcap index is flat with a positive bias at 7,044 while the smallcap index is down nearly 0.1% as compared to the BSE benchmark index which is down 0.2%.

Among the sectoral indices, Metal index continues to be the top loser. Bankex, Oil & Gas, Capital Goods and FMCG indices continue to remain in the negative territory. Meanwhile, Realty index has advanced over 1.5% followed by Auto and Consumer Durables gaining 1% and 0.6% respectively.

Among the Sensex stocks, the top gainers are DLF up 2% followed by Hero Honda, Reliance Infrastructure, Bharti Airtel, ONGC, Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Auto gaining 1% each.

Sterlite, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Jindal Steel, ICICI Bank and L&T losing 1-3% continue to be the top losers.

Of the total 2378 stocks traded on the BSE, 1154 stocks have advanced while 1122 declined.