Markets remain flat, SBI top gainer

Markets continue to maintain the flat trend with the Sensex and the Nifty swinging between negative and positive zone. At 1300 hrs, the Sensex was up 49 points at 17,144 and they Nifty inched up 19 points at 5,226 levels.

Meanwhile, India's wholesale price index (WPI) rose a faster-than-expected 6.89% in March from a year earlier, mainly driven by higher food prices, government data showed on Monday. The annual reading for January was revised up to 6.89% from 6.55%, the government said in the release.

On the global front, Asian markets were weak as Euro zone debt crisis continued to dampen sentiments. China's economy grew at its weakest pace in nearly three years in the first quarter. The Hang Seng is down 0.5% at 20,606. Nikkei slipped 1.5% to 9,487.

Back home, BSE Technology index has declined by 1%, extending its Friday's fall after Infosys earnings forecast disappointed markets. Infosys's consolidated net profit fell 2.4% to Rs 2,316 crore on 4.8% decline in revenue to Rs 8,852 crore in Q4 March 2012 over Q3 December 2011. Infosys has dropped 1.5% to Rs 2,366. Infosys is the top Sensex loser, down 2%.

From the Oil & Gas space, RIL and Oil & Gas have declined by almost 1% each.

Telecom major Bharti Airtel is down by over 1%.

On the gaining side, SBI is the top Sensex gainer, gaining by 2%. Maruti Suzuki, ITC, L&T, BHEL, Tata Motors, DLF, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel and Jindal Steel are up between 1-2%.

The broader markets are outperforming the benchmark indices, both gaining between 0.4-1%.

McNally Bharat Engineering Company has moved higher by 4% to Rs 101 after the company said it has received an order amounting to Rs 298 crore from the West Bengal Power Development Corporation Limited.

Gravita India has surged 11% to Rs 759 on back of huge volumes.

SML Isuzu has soared 7% to Rs 424 after the company said its Japanese promoter Sumitomo Corporation sold 11% stake in the company for around Rs 60 crore.

The overall market breadth in BSE remains positive with 1,388 shares advancing and 1,080 shares declining.