The Sensex has fallen 20 points to 18,668 and the Nifty is down 6 points to 5610.

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Paring all the gains, the Sensex has slipped to almost touch the day's low of 18,540. The Sensex is at 18599, down 45 points from the day's high. The Nifty too shed 18 points and is at 5585. In line, even the broader markets pard its gains. The smallcap index is up 0.2% while the midcap index has slipped 0.1% in sync with the benchmark index which shed 0.3%

Among the sectoral indices on the BSE, Teck up 0.05% leads the chart followed by IT and Health Care. All the other indices remain in the red. Capital Goods, Auto,FMCG are the biggest losers down 0.7% each.Bankex, Power and PSU have marginaly recovered.

The draggers in the Auto space are Bajaj Auto down 2%, Amtek Auto, Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland down 1% each.
D B Corporation up 4%,TV Eighteen,Oracle Financial Services and Jagran Prakashan adding 2% help the Teck index to remain in the green.

The shares of tea companies are trading firm on the bourses on hopes of rise in tea prices due to a pest attack in the main growing northern region. Bengal Tea, Rossel Tea, Diana Tea, Harrisons Malayalam, CCL Products, Assam Company and Jay Shree Tea have notched up gains between 3%-8% higher on the BSE. Among individual stocks Bengal Tea and Rossel Tea are the largest gainers – up 9% each, followed by Diana Tea Company (up 8%), CCL Products (up 4%) and Assam Company (up 3%).

The gainers on the Sensex are ACC, SBI up nearly 2%, Sterlite, Hindustan Unilever adding 1%,Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel and Wipro up 0.8% each.

The losers are Relaince Infrastructure, ITc and HDFC Bank down 1% each followed by Maruti Suzuki,L&T and Tata Motors shedding 0.8%, HDFC, ICICI Bank and RIL losing 0.5% each.

Market breadth marginally positive. 1500 stocks have advanced while 1412 have declined.
 

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