Markets witness flat trades

Sensex down 75pts

The markets began the trading session on a quiet note and are currently witnessing flat trades. The BSE Sensex is at 17,064, down 31 points and the Nifty at 5,202, down 6 points.

The markets are likely to trade range bound today with a negative bias and they react to the inflation numbers for March 2012 due today and await the Reserve Bank of India’s review of the monetary policy tomorrow.

The markets ended a volatile week in the red, thanks a slew of negative developments which dampened the investor sentiment through the week. The BSE benchmark index fell 2.24% while the Nifty lost 2.17% for the week ended April 13.

Asian shares eased on Monday as a surge in Spanish government bond yields renewed concerns about the euro zone's sovereign debt crisis and undermined investor confidence in riskier assets.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.4% while Japan's Nikkei average opened down 1.2%.

On the sectoral front, BSE Oil & Gas index, down 1%, is leading the losses. BSE Auto and Metal indices are down marginally.

Reliance Industries, Cairn India, ONGC, down 1-2% each, are the prominent losers from the Oil & Gas space.

BSE Realty, Bankex and FMCG indices are among the gainers, up 1% each.

Reliance Industries, Wipro, NTPC, TCS, Sun Pharma Industries, down 1-2% each, are the notable losers on the Sensex. The gainers from the pack are SBI, DLF and ICICI Bank, up 1-2% each. Tata Power and ITC are up marginally.

Among individual stocks, Parsvnath Developers has rallied 10% to Rs 61 in opening deals on reports that Sahara Group, ICICI Bank, Bhushan Steel, Bharti Realty, Red Fort Capital and Shri Lal Mahal are in the race among others to acquire its 1.18 acre prime commercial land near Connaught Place in the National Capital.

The overall market breadth is positive as 885 stocks have advanced against 531 declining ones, on the BSE.