Senses drifts lower in insipid session...RIL slips

Global cues too were rather indecisive with the European markets shut for the extended Easter holidays.

The Indian market closed virtually unchanged on Monday at the end of a highly listless session, with the key equity benchmarks trading in a narrow range.

The undertone was more or less subdued right from the start and the market never really looked like accelerating the tempo. Investors chose to remain on the sidelines ahead of the Fed policy meet and the F&O expiry later in the week.



Global cues too were rather indecisive with the European markets shut for the extended Easter holidays. In Asia, the Chinese stocks ended in the red amid speculation of further monetary tightening to tame inflation.

Shares of Reliance Industries were under pressure throughout the session after the company's Q4 results missed analysts' estimates. Moreover, reports suggested that the Oil Ministry had asked Reliance Industries to stop supplying natural gas from the KG-D6 field to non-core consumers.

Axis Bank too fell after its Net Interest Margins dropped. On the other hand, Maruti and Sterlite Industries gained after their results seemed to beat street expectations.

IT stocks like Infosys and HCL Tech were firm. SBI and PNB rose after the RBI relaxed the loan loss provision norms. Other banks also advanced.

The BSE Sensex closed at 19,584, down 18 points over the previous close. It had earlier been as high as 19,697 and as low as 19,531. It had opened at 19,568.

The NSE Nifty finished at 5,865, down 19 points from the last close. It earlier touched a day's high of 5,906 and a day's low of 5,857. It had opened at 5,859.

Sterlite Industries, SBI, Infosys, Maruti Suzuki India, HCL Tech, Ambuja Cement, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Grasim, Sesa Goa, PNB and Ranbaxy were among the top gainers in the Sensex and the Nifty today.

On the other hand, Axis Bank, RIL, DLF, SAIL, RCOM, Reliance Capital and JP Associates were the main losers in the two key indices.

The BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.2% at 8,899 and the BSE Mid-Cap index gained 0.1% at 7,241.

"For India, the good thing is FIIs continue to be net buyers. Although corporate results have been mixed so far, YoY growth in profits and sales is robust. Inflation remains a major pressure point, resulting in expectations of further rate hikes. The market should rediscover its winning ways in the coming days but expect the volatility to continue in light of the F&O expiry on Thursday. Results will continue to drive the sentiment around the world. Globally, investors will brace for the outcome of the latest Fed policy meeting on Wednesday, besides the US GDP data and Ben Bernanke's conference," says Amar Ambani, Head of Research (India private clients), IIFL.

In global action, Asian markets closed mixed. Chinese stocks declined amid conjecture of fresh tightening moves by the policymakers. The Shanghai Composite was down 1.5%. Japanese shares erased most of their gains with the Nikkei finishing 0.1% down.

Markets in Europe are closed today on account of the extended Easter holiday.

In other markets, crude oil was hovering near a two-week peak amid fresh round of violence in the MENA region. Gold hit yet another record high on persistent safe haven buying while the dollar and yen were down.

Australian dollar climbed to a new record versus its US counterpart amid growing risk tolerance among the global investors. But, trading was thin as the Australian markets were shut due to Easter holidays.

The US currency weakened versus most of its major peers.