The market opened lower, tracking weak global cues. The dampener came in the form of the lower-than-expected US existing home sales data, which was down a huge 27% in July. The development dragged down markets across the globe and India was not spared. The benchmarks witnessed range-bound trading in the negative terrain. The market recovered on select buying but profit-booking once again pulled it to a fresh low. However, the indices managed to close off their day’s lows.

 The Sensex ended at 18,179, down 132 points (0.7%). The index touched a high of 18,312 and a low of 18,156 in trade today. The Nifty settled 42 points lower (0.8%) at 5,462, breaching the psychological 5,500 level. The index touched a high of 5,506 and a low of 5,452, intraday.

The market breadth was negative. The Sensex had 23 stocks in the declining list while seven stocks edged higher. On the Nifty, 40 stocks declined against 10 gaining stocks. The broader indices bore the brunt of today’s trade; the BSE Mid-cap index was down 1.5% and the BSE Small-cap index was down 1.4%.

Among the Sensex gainers, Sterlite Industries was up 1%, ONGC gained 0.4% and ITC added 0.3%. DLF (down 3.5%), Tata Steel (down 3.2%), Hindalco Industries (down 3%), Cipla (down 2.6%) and Hero Honda (down 2.3%) led the losers on the Sensex.

The BSE Information Technology (IT) index was the lone sectoral gainer, up 0.01%. The sectoral losers were BSE Realty (down 3.1%), BSE Consumer Durables (CD) (down 1.6%), BSE Auto (down 1.4%), BSE Healthcare (HC) (down 1.3%) and BSE Metal (down 1.2%).

Asian markets settled lower on concerns about the pace of the global economic recovery following the plunge in US existing home sales in July. The development resulted in the Japanese benchmark — Nikkei 225 — touching its 16-month low.

Shanghai Composite plunged 2%, Hang Seng was down 0.1%, KLSE Composite was down 0.6%, Nikkei 225 was down 1.6%, Seoul Composite was down 1.4% and Taiwan Weighted was down 2.5%. On the other hand, Jakarta Composite was down 0.7% and Straits Times added 0.1%,

The US has offered to India and China its full expertise and technical knowhow to exploit the full potential of shale gas to reduce dependence on foreign oil and move towards its goal of energy independence.

As such the Obama administration has proposed do a resource assessment of certain shale basins in India by the US Geological Survey, and provide workshops to train Indian geophysicists on how to do their own resource assessments.

The US markets ended in the red for yet another day on Tuesday, this time on a fall in existing home sales. Sales of existing houses plunged by a record 27% in July as the effects of a government tax credit waned, indicating that lack of jobs threatens to curb US economic recovery. The pace of existing home sales is the slowest since comparable records began in 1999. The Dow declined 133 points (1.3%) to 10,040. The S&P 500 fell 15 points (1.4%) to 1,052. The Nasdaq fell 36 points, (1.6%) to 2,123.

The Plan panel today said the government’s refusal to accord environment clearance to Vedanta’s proposed $1.7-billion aluminium project in Orissa would not tarnish India’s image as an investment-friendly destination.

“I don’t know much about Vedanta, but yesterday’s development will not undermine India's image as investment friendly nation," Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia told reporters after a function today.

Foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs191 crore in the equities market on Tuesday. Domestic institutional investors were net sellers of Rs689 crore on the same day.

IT services major, Patni (up 2.2%), today said it has secured two contracts— a seven-figure, three-year contract from Scandinavia's The Codan Group and another from Serco Learning, a provider of innovative, 21st century educational technology solutions.

The Codan Group is part of the insurance giant RSA Group and operates in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. The contract is to provide managed services around some of Scandinavia's core insurance platforms. With Serco Learning, Patni has won a seven-year contract for the development and delivery of 'Progresso'— Serco's new information management platform for schools.

Infrastructure construction major Atlanta (down 2%) has bagged an order worth Rs 54.72 crore from National Highways, Orissa for construction-related work.

The order involves widening and strengthening of existing intermediate lane to two lane carriage away, according to the company’s filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

Chennai-based EdServ Softsystems Ltd (up 0.6%) said it has signed a Global e-Training Partnership with Ottawa, Canada headquartered Corel Corporation.

Under the partnership, students of EdServ will be eligible to appear for an online test and receive direct Corel Certification. EdServ shall also venture global marketing with Corel certification and address corporate and institution needs to generate qualified Corel designers and multimedia specialists. EdServ will also acquire original software licenses of Corel Corporation through this partnership.