Markets continued to move sideways in afternoon trades. The Sensex was down 101 points at 18,433. Nifty was trading at 5,521 – down 44 points.

Auto and IT stocks have led the decline with each of the indices falling around 2%. However, oil & gas index was up 1% at 9,776.

Weakness persisted in the markets post noon, with the Sensex at 18,442 down 93 points and the Nifty at 5,525 down 36 points.

Auto stocks Bajaj Auto at Rs 1,310 down 4% and Hero Honda at Rs 1,609 off 3% were the top losers on the Sensex. Hindalco Industries at Rs 202 shed 2%, as did Reliance Infra, Jaiprakash Associates, HDFC, Jindal Steel and auto stocks Matuti Suzuki and Mahindra & Mahindra.

ONGC topped the Sensex gainers chart at Rs 306 up nearly 4%, followed by HDFC BAnk at Rs 2,269 and Hindustan Unilever at Rs 276 all up more than 1%. Oil and gas exploration major Reliance Industries at Rs 955 moved up 1%, while State Bank of India and Larsen & Toubro added 1% each.

The broader markets moved lower than the benchmark, with the Mid-cap index off 0.8% at 6,846 and the Small-cap index at 8,378 down 0.7%.

Amongst the sectoral indices, the Oil & Gas counter led the gains up 1.4% at 9,798 buoyed by oil manufacturing company ONGC’s 4% gain, or 27 point addition to the Sensex, and indications of an Empowered Group of Ministers meet on May 11 to deliberate over a diesel; price hike. Top gainers on the energy counter were ONGC, BPCL at Rs 651 up 3.5% and HPCL at Rs 390 up 2%. Oil India added nearly 2%, followed by Indian Oil COrp and RIL both up 1%.

Auto stocks remained weak after yesterday’s 50 basis point hike announced by the Reserve Bank of India, prompting investors to dump auto stocks fearing an impact on sales numbers going ahead. The index slumped almost 2% to 8,955. Major losers in this space were Amtek Auto at Rs 152 and Bajaj Auto at Rs 1,316 both down 4%, while Hero Honda at Rs 1,611 shed 3%. MAruti Suzuki and Ashok Leyland declined 2% each.

The IT counter lodged losses to the tune of more than 1.5% at 5,983. Patni Computer was the highest loser at Rs 372 down more than 6%, while MphasiS at Rs 447 shed 5% and HCL Technologies at Rs 500 slipped 3%.

With 842 advances versus 1,716 declines, the market breadth remained negative.

Source: Business Standard

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