F&O expiry...Nifty ends above 5400

After out-performing the global market last month, the Indian market has started to under-perform in the recent sessions, as a few earnings missed expectations and the RBI raised key rates for the fourth time this year. Also, some of the economic reports are pointing to a slight slowdown in the Indian economy.



Coming back to today's session, it was yet another lackluster day for the Indian markets as investors mulled the drop in core sector growth and overnight losses on Wall Street.

Market players preferred to remain on the sidelines on account of the F&O expiry. The NSE Nifty was stuck in the range of 5385-5410 and somehow managed to end above the 5400 level - the upper band of the ongoing intermediate uptrend.

Oil & gas, Telecom and select Consumer Durables stocks were among the major losers, while PSU and Banking indices on the BSE advanced.

"It was a sluggish day of trades as bulls and bears continued their slugfest. Positive cues from European markets were ignored after a few companies posted less than expected earnings", says Amar Ambani, Vice President, Research IIFL.

The Sensex gained 34 points to end at 17,992, while the Nifty added 11 points to end at 5,409.

Markets in Asia ended on a mixed note; the Nikkei in Japan ended lower by 0.6%, Australia's S&P/ASX ended flat, the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong also ended amost unchanged and Shanghai SE Composite was up 0.5%.

European indices were in the green, the DAX in Germany was up 0.6%, the CAC 40 index in France was up 0.5% and the FTSE in the UK was up 0.7%.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, the BSE PSU index was top gainer; the index gained 1.6%, followed by BSE Teck index which slipped 0.4% and BSE Consumer Durables index fell 0.3%. Among the top gainers, BSE PSU index was up 1.6% and BSE Banking index was up 1%.

The Mid-Cap index gained 0.2% while the Small-cap index marginally fell 0.2%.