Sensex low - weighed down by Infosys, Reliance

Mumbai: The market was moderately lower amid volatility, weighed down by index heavyweights Infosys and Reliance. L&T, ONGC, Bharti, TCS and SBI too were down. Hindalco retained its top position in selling list, falling more than 6 per cent ahead of Q3 results. The Sensex was down 83 points to 17,624.23 and the Nifty fell 26 points to 5,342.40.

The market has been in a consolidation mode since the beginning of week. Ambareesh Baliga, COO, Way2Wealth says, one needs to wait and see whether Nifty consolidates in the 5,300-5,400 region or see a correction to about 5,200-5,250.

Technology majors TCS, Infosys and Wipro were down 0.7-1.3 per cent. Index heavyweights Reliance, ONGC, Bharti and L&T fell 0.7-1.5 per cent.

Shares of country's largest lenders SBI and ICICI Bank dropped just 0.4 per cent.

Tata Steel too was under pressure, falling nearly a percent ahead of third quarter numbers.

However, HDFC Bank, Jindal Steel, Bajaj Auto, NTPC, BHEL, HUL and Cipla gained 0.5-1.4 per cent.

The market breadth was positive; about 1266 shares advanced while 782 shares declined on the BSE.

At 9:19 hours IST: Sensex slips in early trade; Hindalco melts ahead of Q3 nos

The Sensex started off Thursday's trade with mildly negative bias following a weak Asian markets. All global markets were flat as they adopted a wait and watch mode ahead of eurozone finance ministers emergency meeting on Greek austerity deal.

The Sensex fell 58 points to 17,649.14 and the Nifty declined 19 points to 5,349.40.

Frontliners like ONGC, Sterlite, Sesa Goa, Axis Bank, SBI, Infosys, Reliance Power, Bharti and JP Associates were under pressure in early trade.

Hindalco was down nearly 4 per cent ahead of third quarter numbers today. ACC slipped 0.5 per cent ahead of quarterly numbers.

However, Cairn moved up nearly 2 per cent as its Rajasthan block output increased to 133,000 bpd versus 125,000 earlier.

ICICI Bank, Power Grid, Bajaj Auto and Ranbaxy Labs were other gainers.

The CNX Midcap fell just 13 points to 7,422. The market breadth was neutral.

In the second line shares, Thomas Cook shot up 10 per cent to Rs 60 a share. There were reports that the parent company is in discussion to sell India unit.

HMT rose nearly 5 per cent. Gammon Infrastructure gained 7 per cent as the company received Rs 1684 crore Andhra Pradesh Highway Project from NHAI.

Manappuram Finance went up 3 per cent ahead of conference call on RBI's move.

JSW Ispat, Essar Shipping and Jubilant Foodworks rallied 2.5-7.5 per cent.

However, Orchid Chemical and Shree Renuka were down 1.5-2.5 per cent.

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