Live Market Updates: Nifty hovers around 5700; autos lose, HDIL down 3.6%

Moneycontrol Bureau

After pulling back from yesterday lows in the opening trade, both the Sensex and Nifty started to taper off in the morning trade. The Sensex was down 54.09 points at 18830.10 while the Nifty slipped 13.30 points or 0.23% at 5681.10.

Auto stocks were growing weak on concerns of sales slowdown. Major losers in the auto sector included Tata Motors, M&M, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki and Hero MotoCorp.

Steel Authority of India lost a bit more as it was down 1.92 percent. The government will divest 5.82 percent stake which will be offloaded via offer-for-sale (OFS) issue tomorrow. The EGoM, headed by finance minister P Chidambaram will decide the floor price of OFS today after market hours.

Housing Development and Infrastructure (HDIL) continued to be a laggard in the midcap, losing 3.6 percent.

Meanwhile, recovering from its previous loses Bharti Airtel was the major gainer on the Sensex. ICICI Bank, Jindal Steel, HDFC and Cipla were the other gainers.