Weakness persists

The markets continue to trade in the negative, led by weakness in banking and consumer goods stocks. The Sensex is now quoting at 17396, down 78 points, and the Nifty is at 5198, lower by 22 points. The small-cap and mid-cap sectors are also trading marginally lower.
 
The US markets had ended lower, with the Dow losing 122 points and the Nasdaq shedding 29 points. And the Asian markets mirrored the losses on Wall Street; Hang Seng lost 212 points and Straits Times shed 15 points.

The major losers on the Sensex are L&T (weaker by Rs 30 or 1.8% at Rs 1606), ICICI Bank (lower by Rs 15 or 1.7% at Rs 861) and HDFC Bank (down Rs 27 or 1.5% at Rs 1728). The other significant losers are Sterlite, Hindalco and Tata Motors.

The leading Sensex gainers are TCS (stronger by Rs 11 or 1.4% at Rs 790), Wipro (higher by Rs 10 or 1.4% at Rs 736) and Grasim (up Rs 31 or 1.1% at Rs 2727).

The market breadth is weak. Out of 2406 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 833 advancing stocks as against 1513 declines.