Sensex slips 23 points in late morning trade

Mumbai, Aug 19 (PTI) The BSE benchmark Sensex was tradinglower by 22.53 points in a choppy morning session afterparticipants took to profit-booking in key frontlineshares of telecom, IT and teck sectors amid mixed Asian cues. While, buying interest was seen in realty, consumerdurables, capital goods and banking sectors. The 30-share index resumed higher at 28,167.66 andhovered between 28,212.30 and 28,092.06 before quoting at28,100.91 at 1100 hrs, showing a loss of 22.53 points or 0.08per cent from its last close. The NSE 50-share Nifty was trading flat, marginallylower by 3.80 points or 0.04 per cent at 8,669.45. Major losers were, Coal India by 1.48 pct, Bharti Airtel1.15 pct, TCS 0.92 pct, PowerGrid 0.82 pct and HDFC 0.81 pct. Notable gainers include, SBIN 3.32 pct, Asian Paint1.11 pct, Cipla 1.05, NTPC 0.75 and L&T 0.50 pct. Meanwhile, closer home, foreign portfolio investors(FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 162.17 crore yesterday, asper provisional data released by the stock exchanges. Overseas, Asian markets were trading mixed, US stockseked out gains yesterday following upbeat earnings andforecast from Wal-Mart and as higher oil lifted energy shares.PTI PAKMKJ