Unless 17,700 on the upside or 17,300 on the downside is breached, the market is expected to remain listless

The market witnessed subdued activity today on account of the 'Bharat Bandh' called by the opposition parties across the country to protest the recent fuel price hike by the government. Volatility was high but the trading volume was very low. The market traded in a narrow band and ended the session on a flat note. The Sensex ended at 17,473, down 19 points (0.11%) and the Nifty was at 5,236, lower by 1.2 points (0.02%).

The top gainers on the Sensex were Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) (up 1.33%), Wipro (up 0.89%), Bharti Airtel and HDFC (up 0.81% each) and Infosys (up 0.51%). The top Sensex losers were Reliance Communications (down 2.88 %,), Hindalco Industries (down 1.73%), ONGC (down 1.45%), BHEL (down 1.27%) and Hindustan   Unilever (down 1.13%).

In the sectoral space on the BSE, healthcare (up 0.53%), IT (up 0.39%) and bankex (up 0.32%) were the top performers, whereas oil & gas (down 0.79%), metals (down 0.40%) and PSU (down 0.37%) were the laggards.

Asian equity indices finished mixed on Monday. Investors remained cautious on worries over the slowdown in China after disappointing economic data last week.

Nikkei 225 gained 63 points (0.69%) to 9,267. Jakarta Composite advanced 6 points (0.20%) to 2,877, Seoul Composite was up 4 points (0.21%) to 1,675 and Taiwan Weighted gained 109 points (1.49%) to 7,439.96.

Among the markets that ended lower, Shanghai Composite was down 19 points (0.80%) to 2,364, Hang Seng was down 63 points (0.32%) to 19,842 and KLSE Composite was down 8 points (0.61%) to 1,299.  The South Korean market remained closed today.

The US markets continued their slide on Friday due to disappointing jobs data. US employment in June fell for the first time this year. Overall, 125,000 workers lost their jobs last month, more than the drop of 110,000 that analysts had predicted. Besides, the government also reported that factory orders fell in May for the first time in nine months. The 1.4% drop was the biggest since March 2009. This news coupled with the jobs data unnerved traders, taking the markets down.

The Dow lost 46.05 points (0.47%) to 9,686.48, its lowest close since 5 October 2009. The S&P 500 index fell by 4.79 points (0.46%) to 1,022.58 while the Nasdaq was down by 9.57 points (0.47%) to 2,091.79.

The US market remained closed today for the Independence Day holiday.

Back home, normal life was disrupted in several parts of the country during the 'Bharat Bandh' called by a combined opposition to protest the fuel price hike. The greatest impact was felt in National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and Left-ruled states and in Maharashtra.

Sporadic incidents of violence, in which buses and trains were targeted and clashes with police who baton-charged the protestors, were reported during the day-long nation-wide strike.

The country's new chief statistician TCA Anant today said hiking fuel prices was a better option than keeping them artificially low and widening the fiscal deficit.

He also hinted that the government's move to hike fuel prices should have come sooner, but acknowledged that it was difficult to time these kinds of decisions because of 'multiple pressures' in a democracy.

Inflation will ease into a comfortable zone by December, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, said on Monday.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Friday raised interest rates earlier than expected, ahead of its 27th July policy review, days after the government freed fuel prices. Analysts expect another 25 basis points (bps) hike on 27th July, on concerns over inflation hovering above 10%. The central bank projects headline inflation, which hit 10.16% in May, to fall to 5.5% at end-March.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers in the equities market on Friday, offloading stocks worth Rs305 crore. Domestic institutional investors were net buyers, purchasing stocks worth Rs26 crore.

The boards of directors of Anil Dhirubhai Ambani group companies Reliance Power (up 3.5%) and Reliance Natural Resources (RNRL) on Sunday approved the merger of the two companies. The boards approved a 4:1 share swap ratio.

Shareholders of RNRL will get one share of Reliance Power for every four shares held by them. The exchange ratio is based on a valuation by KPMG. The deal comes within days of RNRL signing a revised gas supply deal with RIL for power projects, which are under the charge of Reliance Power.

Eicher Motors gained 3% after VE Commercial Vehicles, a joint venture between Eicher and Sweden's Volvo, said it sold 2,966 trucks and buses in June, up 43% year-on-year. Exports during the month were slightly lower at 220 units.