Green for the 3rd straight day; Markets end flat

After facing modest gains for two consecutive days, the key benchmark indices closed today's June F&O expiry day with a marginal rise. The Sensex closed 23 points higher while the Nifty advanced 7 points. Major Headlines: Brigade Ent soars on signing JV with Singapore firm SBI cuts interest rate on loans to exporters Axis Bank slips on huge volumes e-Payment compulsory for PSUs from July 1: Fin Ministry Indian Indices Ahead of the much awaited European Union Summit, Indian markets carried forward yesterday's gains and ended the F&O expiry day on a flat note. Markets posted gains for the third consecutive day amid volatile swings. What was the market movement for the day? The Indian markets, after trading in green for most part of the trade lost grounds during the afternoon session. The weak opening of the European markets, led the Indian equities to turn negative as the investors were cautious and not ready to take long positions ahead of European Union summit that will begin today for two days in Brussels and closed the trading session of the week marginally higher. Buying in FMCG, Power, PSU, IT, Metal, Auto, TECk pushed the markets in green zone, while selling in Oil & Gas, banking, consumer durables, capital goods, realty, healthcare capped the upward trend. Heavyweights which supported the markets today were ITC, TCS, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, NTPC, Hero Motocorp and Coal India. The broader market too ended with minute gains. The BSE Midcap index shut shop on a flattish note, up by 0.07%, while the BSE Smallcap index added 0.22% at the closing bell. The overall market breadth was positive. The Sensex closed at 16990, up by 23 points while the Nifty settled at 5149.15 rising by 7 points at close. Which stocks were on the front seat? Tracking today's stock specific action, the major highlight of the day was Axis Bank which tanked amid heavy volumes. About two crore shares changed hands on both the exchanges at Rs960 a share via block deal. The sources said that HSBC Bank Mauritius was going to sell its stake in Axis Bank via accelerated book building route. Owing to this, the stock closed 2.98% lower. Yes Bank also declined on the same news as per media reports. The HSBC firm is expected to sell its 1.68 crore equity shares at a price band of Rs318-324 a share through block deal that would be valued around USD 93- 98 million for 4.75% stake in Yes Bank as well. The stock closed with a marginal loss of 0.73%. Another news cracker for the day was Brigade Enterprises, which shot up by 16.95%. The company signed a Joint Venture (JV) deal with the Government of Singapore. The company will invest Rs100 crore in JV that will develop residential projects. Company expects revenues of Rs700 crore in next 3-4 years. After market hours, the stock closed 15.01% higher in trade today. Indian Hotels too surged, as Tata Sons increased stake in the company by 4.78% to 24.36% for Rs497 crore. The stock gained 3.14% in trade today. Which sector was in the news? From the banking space, SBI declined by almost 1%. SBI has cut interest rate on loan to exporters by 0.5% within a few days of the Reserve Bank increasing the export refinancing limits of banks. What was buzzing in the currency market? The rupee remained firm by rising 17 paise to 56.98 per dollar in the mid-session as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh signaled his keenness to boost economy after taking charge of the finance portfolio. Market sentiment The market breadth stood in favor of advances. Of the 2900 stocks traded on the BSE, 1461 (50.38%) rose, 1312 (45.24%) fell and 127 (4.38%) stocks remained unchanged. Sectoral & stock screening Among the 13 sectoral indices six closed in red zone, and remaining seven sectors closed in green zone. Top Gainers: BSE FMCG (up by 0.82%), BSE Power (surged by 0.38%), BSE PSU (gained by 0.31%). Top Losers: BSE Oil & Gas (down by 0.37%), BSE Bankex (fell by 0.32%), BSE CD (down by 0.30%). Among 'A' group stocks, top three gainers were- Bajaj Finserv (rose by 5.41%), MMTC (up by 3.78%) and Century Tex (surged by 3.26%). Top three losers were- JP Power (down by 4.41%), Ruchi Soya (declined by 3.40%), and Manappuram Finance (fell by 3.17%). Global signals: Asian markets witnessed mixed trade today where Japan's Nikkei share average rose by 1.7% to its highest close in six weeks. This upmove was helped by short-covering as the quarter-end neared, although it was still on track for the worst quarterly performance. On the other side Hang Seng fell by 0.79% today. The euro hit a three-week low and European shares fell as divisions among European leaders dashed any hopes of concrete measures to tackle the region's debt crisis, sending 10-year Spanish government bond yields above 7%. US stock index futures pointed towards a lower opening at the Wall Street on Thursday. Market Outlook: Data to be released in the US on Thursday: GDP and Jobless Claims.