After a positive but somewhat listless start, the market slipped into the red, struggled for around a couple of hours before forcing its way back into the positive territory past mid afternoon on some hectic buying in a few old economy stocks. However, with investors choosing to play it safe ahead of RBI's monetary policy statement and another round of results from India Inc., the market ended on a flat note today.


A fairly strong rally on the Asian bourses and the steady start in European markets failed to lift sentiment any significantly in today's session. Though weak numbers posted by index heavyweight Reliance Industries did pull the market down from its high, strong results reported by a few top corporate houses helped keep the bears away at the sidelines today.

The Sensex, which rose to 15,463.09 after initial uncertainty, tumbled to 15,228.46 in early afternoon trade but recovered fairly well to end the session at 15,375.04 down just 3.92 points or 0.03% from its previous close. The National Stock Exchange's 50 stock Nifty index settled at 4572.30, around 44 points off the day's low of 4528.50, netting a small gain of 3.75 points. The Nifty had touched a high of 4596.75 around mid morning.

FMCG stocks, led by heavyweights Hindustan Unilever (5.9%) and ITC (3.1%), had a good outing today. Godrej Consumer Products and Ruchi Soya finished stronger by nearly 8.5%. Nestle, Colgate Palmolive, Marico, Dabur India, Tata Tea and Britannia Industries also ended with impressive gains.

Realty stocks moved up sharply. Sector major DLF gained 4.7%. Omaxe flared up by 14.5%. Parsvnath Developers, HDIL, Sobha Developers, Ansal Infrastructure and Anant Raj Industries gained 3% - 6.5%. Ackruti City and Orbit Corporation, India Bulls Real Estate and Phoenix Mills also closed with strong gains.

Among power stocks, Tata Power spurted 5.5%. Torrent Power shot up by over 9%. Lanco Infratech, Neyveli Lignite Corporation, GVK Power, GMR Infrastructure, Suzlon Energy, BHEL, NTPC and Power Grid Corporation also ended on a high note today.

There was good support for several metal stocks as well. Tata Steel (4%), Gujarat NRE Coke (9.15%), JSW Steel (8.7%), Jindal Saw (5.75%), Jindal Steel (2.95%), SAIL (2.35%), Hindustan Zinc (1.65%) and Ispat Industries (1.55%) ended on a firm note today.

Consumer Durables had a fairly good outing today. Titan Industries ended 2% up on strong results. Gitanjali Gems (4.3%), Rajesh Exports (3.2%) and Blue Star (3.1%) finished with handsome gains.

Among information technology stocks, bellwether Infosys Technologies moved up by 1.1%. HCL Technologies gained 1.75% following the company entering into a strategic alliance with eBaoTech Corporation, a leading provider or new generation software and services for life and general insurance industry. FSL, Educomp Solutions and CMC were the other prominent gainers in the IT space. Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and Tech Mahindra ended flat.

Reliance Industries fell 3.7% due to disappointing results. ONGC lost 2.8%. Reliance Petroleum, GAIL India, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, Aban Offshore, Indian Oil Corporation and Essar Oil also ended in the red with notable losses.

Among automobile majors, Tata Motors rebounded in late trades on better than expected results. The stock closed with a modest gain of 0.4% at Rs 374.95, well off the day's low of 356.80. Hero Honda closed lower by around 3%. Ashok Leyland, Mahindra & Mahindra and Maruti Suzuki also ended weak.

Telecom stocks Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications closed on a firm note. Among bank majors, State Bank of India closed 0.65% up. HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank ended lower by around 1.2%. Housing finance stock HDFC eased by 1.9%.

Even as large cap stocks struggled for support, midcap and smallcap stocks had a fairly good session today. Mirroring investor interest at the side counters, the BSE Midcap index firmed up by 1.63% while the Smallcap index surged 1.53%.

The market breadth was strong right through the day. On BSE, out of 2727 stocks traded today, 1682 stocks surged higher. 952 stocks declined and 93 stocks ended flat.