The Nifty is yet to break past 5,900 levels, which is needed for an uptrend

The market closed with modest losses today, an indication that it is still in a range. Tepid quarterly earnings reports kept a lid on the market today. The Nifty is yet to break past the 5,900 levels, which is necessary for an uptrend. On the downside, support remains at 5,750 and then at 5,550.

Tracking good global cues, the local market opened higher with the Sensex gaining 66 points at 19,611 and the Nifty up 16 points to 5,884. The market was choppy, a feature ahead of the futures and options contract expiry tomorrow. Soon the indices touched the day's high, with the Sensex scaling 19,634 and the Nifty at 5,892.  However, the weak outlook from IT major Wipro disappointed the market, sending the indices into negative territory.

The see-saw movement continued till noon, when a huge bout of selling hurtled the indices further southwards. A mixed opening by key European bourses lifted investor sentiment a little in post-noon trade. But selling pressure pushed the market down once again to the day's lows in post-noon trade. At the intra-day low the Sensex was at 19,413, down 132 points, and the Nifty shed 48 points to 5,820.

Fluctuation continued till the end of trade with losses expanding today. The Sensex closed the session at 19,449, down 97 points from its previous close, and the Nifty lost 35 points to settle at 5,834. The advance-decline ratio on the National Stock Exchange was 574:817.

The broader indices ended flat. In the sectoral space, BSE PSU, BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods gained 0.49% each and BSE Consumer Durables was up 0.26%. On the other hand, BSE Realty (down 1.55%), BSE Capital Goods (down 1.20%) and BSE Metal (down 0.81%) were the losers.

ONGC (up 1.57), Mahindra & Mahindra (up 1.61%), Maruti Suzuki (up 1.10%) were the top performers on the Sensex, whereas Wipro (down 2.86%), Jaiprakash Associates (down 2.66%) and BHEL (down 2.30%) were the major laggards.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has imposed a total penalty of Rs1.95 crore on 19 banks, among them the State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Citibank, for violation of norms on derivatives, an instrument that is commonly used to hedge financial risks.

According to the RBI, the lenders failed to carry out due diligence with regard to suitability of products and sold derivative products to companies not having risk-management policies. They also failed to verify the adequacy of eligible limits before selling derivatives.

Markets in Asia, which were trading higher for most part of the trading session, ended with key indices in the red. With policy announcements from the US Federal Reserve expected later in the day and from the Bank of Japan on Thursday, investors remained cautious. On the other hand, optimism on the news that 90% of Japanese factories will resume production by July, perked up spirits.

The Jakarta Composite gained 0.80%, the KLSE Composite was up 0.17%, the Nikkei 225 jumped 1.39%, the Straits Times rose 0.34%, the Seoul Composite added 0.02% and the Taiwan Weighted surged 1.13%. On the other hand, the Shanghai Composite declined 0.46% and the Hang Seng was down 0.48%.

Back home, foreign institutional investors continued to pull out funds from the equities segment on Tuesday, they were net sellers of stocks worth Rs554.03 crore. Conversely, domestic institutional investors were net buyers of shares worth Rs161.81 crore.