Sensex quiet; realty, auto, power gain

1:28 AM in

Indian equity benchmark indices were trading flat with negative bias in afternoon trade. Some more selling pressure in the market may drift Nifty back to 5700 mark.
The BSE realty index has outperformed the other sectoral indices; it was up over 3%. Buying was also seen in select auto and power stocks. However, metal and oil & gas stocks were trading lower.
Reliance, ICICI Bank, TCS, ITC and L&T were negative contributors to the bourses.
Earnings season is round the corner, analyst believes that market movement is depend on how results pan out. Piyush Garg, chief investment officer, ICICI Securities said that the market movement ahead would depend entirely on how the results pan out and the kind of guidance corporates give for the entire fiscal year.
"In case that is not too pessimistic, there is a fair chance that we may bottom out somewhere around 5,500 Nifty levels. There could be a kind of 20-25% returns from 5,500 Nifty levels into next eight- nine months," he added.
At 13.15 hrs IST, the Sensex was down 17.37 points or 0.09% at 19060.93, and the Nifty was down 16.65 points or 0.29% at 5712.30.
About 1286 shares advanced, 1433 shares declined, and 944 shares remain unchanged.
Top gainers on the Sensex were DLF at Rs 240.75 up 2.88%, Hero Honda at Rs 1,908 up 1.41%, Maruti Suzuki at Rs 1,198 up 1.31%, SBI at Rs 2,507 up 1.26% and Reliance Infra at Rs 595.50 up 1.25%.
Top losers on the Sensex were Sterlite Ind at Rs 164.05 down 3.56%, Hindalco at Rs 190.95 down 2.43%, Jindal Steel at Rs 642.60 down 2.14%, Tata Steel at Rs 596.50 down 1.63% and ICICI Bank at Rs 1,072.20 down 1.59%.
Refinery major HPCL was trading at Rs 390.00 down 2.6% from its previous close of Rs 400.40.
Index heavyweight Reliance was trading at Rs 859.80 down 1.21% from its previous close of Rs 870.35.