At 14:56 hours IST, the Sensex was hovering around its previous closing value as there was tussle going on between bulls and bears. Reliance Industries, SBI, ICICI Bank, NTPC, SAIL, Tata Motors, TCS, Jindal Steel, BPCL, Cipla, Ambuja Cements, Tata Power and ACC were seeing buying interest and limited the losses to some extent.

However, selling continued in telecom, realty, FMCG, capital goods and select auto stocks. Heavyweights like Bharti, ONGC, DLF, HUL and BHEL remained under pressure, which fell 2-3%.

The Sensex was down 36 points at 16,461 and the Nifty slipped 8 points at 4,890. The markets reported total turnover of Rs 94,000 crore so far and this included Rs 72,000 crore from NSE F&O segment.

Top percentage gainers - Nahar Capital, HB Estate, Rich Capital, Brawn Pharmam and Hindustan Motors were up 20% each. NMDC shot up 18.75%, as Cabinet may take up NMDC divestment next month. HMT and Fertilisers & Chemical gained 14-15%.

In the midcap space, Jai Corp, HOEC, Engineers India and Exide Industries were up 7.5-11% while Educomp Solutions, Indiabulls Real, Mcleod Russel, Thomas Cook and AstraZeneca declined 4-9%.

In the smallcap space, ITI, Shrenuj, Hindustan Organic Chemical and IVR Prime gained 10-12% while Murli, SpiceJet, Ruchi Soya, HBL Power and Kanani Industries fell 5-7%.

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