Sensex slips into negative zone

The Sensex has slipped into the negative zone and is now at 16,002, down 50 points,

The NSE Nifty is at 4,748, down two points.
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(Updated at 1250hrs)

The Sensex has pared most of its gains and has touched a low of 16,135, down 225 points from the day's high. The index is now at 16,161, up 108 points.

The NSE Nifty is at 4,799, up 49 points.

Sterlite has advanced 6% to Rs 791 and Tata Steel has added 4% to Rs 487, respectively.

Grasim Industries, Hindalco and SBI are up over 3% each at Rs 2,215, Rs 124 and Rs 2,263, respectively.

Mahindra & Mahindra, ACC, HDFC Bank, Maruti and Tata Motors are up 2% each.

Bharti Airtel has slumped around 6% to Rs 294 and Reliance Communications has slipped 5% to Rs 180, respectively.

The market breadth is extremely positive, out of 2,561 shares traded, 1,828 have advanced and 673 have declined so far on the BSE.

The BSE realty and the metal indices have advanced 4% each to Rs 3,979 and 14,440, respectively.