Sensex turns volatile in morning trades

After a negative opening which saw the BSE benchmark index slipping to a low of 18,420 in the opening trades, the Sensex picked up momentum and shot to a high of 18,567 due to the buying interest in heavyweights like Infosys and ITC. However, the up move lost its steam and currently up 14 points at 18,516 while the Nifty is down five points at 5,561.

In the broader markets, the smallcap and the midcap indices are flat with a positive bias.

Among the sectoral indices, FMCG is leading the morning gains with a 0.8% gain followed by IT up 0.3%. On the other hand, Health care index is down 0.5% and Realty and Auto indices shed 0.3% each.

Hindustan Unilever, ONGC and ITC up 1% each are the top gainers among the Sensex stocks. Tata Motors, Infosys, Wipro and Reliance Infrastructure gaining 0.5-0.8% are the other notable gainers.

Among the losers are Hero Honda, HDFC Bank and Hindalco down 1% each followed by DLF, Cipla, TCS and BHEL down 0.5% each.

Among other individual stocks, Biocon plunged over 5% after reporting a 8.7% fall in Q1 net profit. The stock now trades at Rs 350, down 5.6%. Also, Exide tumbled nearly 10% to a low of Rs 152 in early trades after the company reported a flat growth in Q1 numbers.

The market breadth is positive. Of the total 2255 stocks traded on the BSE, 1138 stocks have advanced while 1022 declined.