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Sensex Turns Choppy; Tata Motors Dips Over 5%
06 Feb 2015, 09:51 AM IST 
The Sensex turned choppy after opening in the red owing to selling pressure visible in the auto stocks.
The broader Nifty was trading close to its crucial psychological levels of 8,700 owing to selling pressure visible in the heavyweight stocks like Tata Motors, Bharat Petroleum, Bank of Baroda, Mahindra & Mahindra and Punjab National Bank.
From the Nifty basket, auto major Tata Motors plunged over 5 per cent to Rs 557 in the opening trades after the company announced its third quarter numbers.
Tata Motors' third quarter profit after tax slipped 25 per cent to Rs 3,580 crore compared to Rs 4,804 crore. The profit dipped on account of Rs 300 crore provision for Singur land.
The company also said that the sales of commercial and passenger vehicles for the quarter ended December 31, 2014, stood at 1,27,484 units, down by 3.5 per cent, as compared to the corresponding quarter last year.
Bharat Petroleum, Bank of Baroda, Mahindra & Mahindra, Punjab National Bank, Powergrid, NMDC, Ultratech Cement, HDFC Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank also opened weaker by 0.5-2 per cent each. On the other hand, Cairn India, Cipla, Sesa Sterlite, ONGC and TCS were among the gainers.
On the sectoral front, auto stocks were facing the heat of selling pressure led by losses in Tata Motors. The BSE auto index was down 2.2 per cent. Select banking, capital goods, oil & gas and power stocks were also witnessing selling pressure.
Meanwhile, the broader markets were in line with the benchmark indices. The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices slipped 0.2 per cent each.
At 9:30 AM, the Sensex was down 5 points at 28,846 and the Nifty was also down 5 points at 8,706.