Markets have a sedate close; Sensex unchanged at 18048

The markets had another quiet session of trade in the absence of any triggers, either domestic or global. The Sensex traded in a range of around 100 points before ending at 18048, lower by one point and the Nifty ended at 5414, down four points. The midcap index ended at 7694, higher by 46 points and the smallcap index ended at 9718, up 32 points.

While this trading day was as monotonous as any in the recent past, it should still qualify as a healthy session in light of the fact that the markets had a soft closing in the previous session. The Sensex had shed 116 points and the Nifty had lost 33 points on Monday.

Meanwhile, the Asian markets had a mixed session of trade. Japan's Nikkei closed at its lowest level in eight months on concerns of a global slowdown ahead of data from the United States and Europe. The Taiwan Weighted and Straits Times indices also ended lower, albeit marginally, while Hang Seng and Seoul ended in the green. The European markets were upbeat though, with the FTSE, CAC and DAX registering gains of upto a percent each in early trades. And Wall Street is tipped to open higher ahead of the US housing data due to be released later in the day, given that the Dow futures are trading up by almost a percent.

The leading gainers on the Sensex were Hindalco (strengthened by 2.3% at Rs 168), HDFC Bank (gained 1.8% at Rs 2122) and RCom (added 1.5% at Rs 165). HDFC, ITC and Hero Honda were the other significant gainers.

On the other hand, Hindustan Unilever weakened by 1.5% at Rs 265 to emerge as the top loser on the BSE. Reliance Infra had another bad day, shedding 1.1% at Rs 1035 and Sterlite lost 0.9% at Rs 159.

Among the stocks in the news post the Vedanta deal, Cairn India saw bottom fishing after being pounded by 6.3% on the previous day. The stock ended at Rs 338, higher by 1.7%, on the BSE. Sesa Goa was not so lucky. After tumbling 8.9% on Monday, the stock shed another 0.8% to end at Rs 319.

The market breadth was neutral. Out of 3086 stocks traded on the BSE, there were 1449 advancing stocks as against 1513 declines.