It was a flat close for the Indian stock market today as investors refrained from building up positions due to a lack of triggers. Instead, they were seen pressing sales at every noticeable rise in values. There were a few stock specific stories like some big order wins for the IT majors and some capital goods manufacturers, but the mood remained cautious almost right through the session.


The Sensex, which tumbled to 15,685.49 in morning trade, gradually inched up into the positive territory and rose to 15,853.71 an hour past noon, but gave up most of its gains and ended at 15,781.07, up 11.22 points or 0.07% over its previous closing mark.

The broader 50-stock Nifty index of the National Stock Exchange closed at 4688.20 with a gain of 7.35 points or 0.16%. The Nifty touched a low of 4645.15 and a high of 4707.90 today.

Unveiling the five-year foreign policy, the commerce minister set a target of US$ 200 billion worth exports for next fiscal, a feat that India failed to achieve in 2008-09 due to a slump in global demand in the face of financial crisis. The government extended tax holiday and duty refund for exporters, while allowing duty free capital goods import under its Foreign Trade Policy to insulate them from protectionism induced by recession abroad.

Consumer durables stocks had a good outing today. Capital goods, pharma and select information technology and PSU stocks also closed on a firm note. Power, auto and oil stocks found some support at lower levels. FMCG, realty, bank and metal stocks remained quite sluggish today.

Midcap and smallcap stocks rallied well but lost their way in afternoon trade and settled well off the day's highs.

Bharti Airtel (2.75%), Wipro (2.05%), Tata Power (1.7%), Larsen & Toubro (1.6%), Sterlite Industries (1.5%), BHEL (1.35%) and Mahindra & Mahindra (1.2%) closed on a firm note.

ITC, NTPC, State Bank of India, Maruti Suzuki, Infosys Technologies and ONGC closed with modest gains. Sun Pharmaceuticals and Reliance Industries finished with small gains.

GAIL India, HCL Technologies, Nalco, Cipla, Unitech, ABB, Siemens, Jindal Steel and Ranbaxy Laboratories closed with impressive gains.

Tata Steel ended lower by 5.3% due to weak quarterly results. Reliance Power, Suzlon Energy, BPCL, Punjab National Bank, Power Grid Corporation and Axis Bank also ended with notable losses.

Consumer durables stocks Rajesh Exports (8.6%), Videocon Industries (8.5%), Gitanjali Gems (4.65%) and Titan Industries (3.25%) closed with sharp gains today.

Capital goods stocks SKF India, Reliance Industrial Infrastructure, Bharat Bijli, BEML, Walchandnagar Industries, Punj Lloyd and Lakshmi Machine Works ended with impressive gains.

The market breadth was positive right through the day. Out of 2845 stocks traded on BSE, 1638 stocks moved higher. 1128 stocks declined and 79 stocks ended flat.