Sensex Dips Back Below 20k

The Indian markets turned into a negative zone after opening on a positive note. In the afternoon trading session, Nifty is trading in a negative zone down by 13 points at 6036 and Sensex is down by 18 points at 19,964. Both Nifty and Sensex are trading up in the range of 0.08% to 0.21%.

The advance-decline ratio has turned in favour of the bears. On the NSE, 1031 shares are trading in the red and 413 shares are in the green.

Top 5 NSE Gainers: Bharti Airtel is the top performer on the NSE and is trading with gains of 3.65% on the back of a hike in tariffs. Other gainers are ITC, Asian Paints, UltraTech Cement and HDFC Bank.

Top 5 NSE Losers: Hindustan Unilever, extending its last trading session loss, is trading down by 4.50% and is among the top losers, followed by HCL Technologies, Bharat Petroleum, IDFC and Jaiprakash Associates.

Most of the sectors are trading negative. TECk is the only index in gains, up by 0.10% at this hour of trade. PSU, Realty and Auto are the top losing sectors, down in the range of 1.15%-1.35%.

The peer Asian markets continue to trade on a mixed note. Straits Times has gained 0.38% and Shanghai Composite is trading up by 0.25%. Nikkei 225 is trading down by 2.13%, and Kospi, Taiwan Weighted and Hang Seng have all dipped between 0.10%-81%.

Buzzers: Ajanta Pharma is locked in an upper circuit at Rs 491. It has also hit a 52-week high after reporting 76% YoY growth in net profit at Rs 32.57 crore for Q3FY13 on account of higher sales income.

Sasken Communication has surged 9% to Rs 130 after reporting a stellar Q3 performance. The profit of the company jumped up to Rs 11 crore against 0.24 crore in Q1.

Nifty has a strong support at 6020 and the next support stands at 5990.