Sensex slips 100pts; IT drags

The markets slipped deeped into red in the last few minutes of trade. At 1350 hrs, the Sensex was at 18,961 down 85 points and the Nifty was at lower by 27 points at 5684.

Wipro continued to remain the top loser the stock shed 4.4% and was trading at Rs 456 on back of lower-than-expected quarterly numbers posted by the company. The company's net profit increased by 10% at Rs 1,319 crore.  ONGC, Sterlite Industries, HDFC, Tata Power, Infosys and Jindal Steel were also among the losers.

State Bank of India, Reliance Communication, Reliance Industries, BHEL, Reliance Infrastructure and ICICI Bank were among the gainers.

BSE Oil & Gas index was the top sectoral gainer the index was up 87 points at 9757. BSE Banking index- Bankex gained 94 points at 12,349 on back of good quarterly numbers posted by PSU banks. Consumer Durbles, Power, PSU and Capital Goods indices were also trading in the green.

IT stocks continued to reel under the selling pressure, the BSE IT index was down 1.2% or 81 points at 6635, Teck, Metal, FMCG and  Healthcare indices were also trading in the negative territory.

Financial Technologies, Wipro, HCL Technologies, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Core Projects and Oracle Financial Services Software and Mphasis were among the losers on the IT charts.

Indian Oil, HPCL, BPCL, Reliance Industries and GAIL were top gainers among the oil & gas stocks. Among the banking stocks Bank of India was the top gainer, the stock was trading higher by 3.9% at Rs 450. Cnara Bank, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, Union Bank of India and Bank of Baroda were also among the gainers.

The broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices, the BSE mid-cap index was up 40 points at 7216 and the small-cap index was at 8973 up 68 points.

On the corporate front, Hindustan Construction Company and Punjab National Bank announced their third qaurter  results. Net profit of Hindustan Construction Comapany declined by 46% to Rs 7.9 crore and Punjab National Bank reported jump in net profit by 8% at Rs 1090 crore.