Markets subdued in noon trades

The benchmark indices are lacklustre as we embark on the last hour of the trading session. The Sensex is quoting at 17524, down 36 points and the Nifty is at 5272, down four points. There is  underperformance on the broader market front; the midcap index is at 6524, lower by 59 points and the smallcap index is at 7805, down 68 points.   

The markets had registered gains of more than 100 points at opening bell in line with the positive sentiment prevalent globally. Wall Street had posted gains for the fourth day on Tuesday on growing hopes that Greece would avoid a debt default. The Dow had risen 109 points and Nasdaq had climbed 57 points. Earlier, in a vote after market closing, Prime Minister George Papandreou's cabinet had won a vote of confidence in what marks a first step towards a resolution of Greece's debt crisis. And the Asian markets had a reassuring look about them. But the similarities ended there.

 

In a repeat of the market behaviour witnessed in the previous session, the domestic bourses were unable to sustain the gains for long. While the Asian markets maintained their momentum till close, with the Nikkei jumping nearly 2% and the other Asian peers gaining in the region of half a percent each, the bourses back home seemingly decided to chart their own course. And the directionless on the European front, with the FTSE, CAC and DAX showing no signs of budging much from previous closing levels, haven't help matters either.

Hindustan Unilever has weakened by 3.4% at Rs 311, Bharti Airtel has shed 2.8% at Rs 379 and Maruti Suzuki has shed 2.2% at Rs 1121. TCS is seeing profit-booking after the previous session's gains, losing 1.9% at Rs 1082 and RIL has continued its downtrend after the previous day's bounceback, gaining 1.3% at Rs 837.

On the other hand, ONGC has soared 2% at Rs 260 to top the gainers list on the BSE despite the building storm around its reserves. Cairn had earlier alleged that ONGC may have overstated the natural gas reserves in its much-talked about KG basin KG-DWN-98/2 block, which is situated next to Reliance Industries' prolific KG-D6 fields. Cipla has jumped by 1.9% at Rs 322 and M&M has added 1.9% at Rs 646.

The market breadth is negative. Out of 2862 stocks traded on the BSE, there are 966 advancing stocks as against 1772 declines.