Sensex ends flat at 29,136

The 30-share Sensex ended up 41 points at 29,136 and 50-share Nifty gained 4 points at 8,809.

Markets ended flat with positive bias on Monday after easing whole-sale price inflation led to renewed buying interest in stocks of fast moving consumer goods companies. 

The 30-share Sensex ended up 41 points at 29,136 and 50-share Nifty gained 4 points at 8,809. 

As per the official data released on Monday, wholesale prices declined an annual 0.39% in January, their second fall in three months, on the back of falling fuel prices, even as food inflation rose during the period.

The official data released on Monday revised November wholesale price inflation to -0.17% against provisional estimates of 0% earlier. The data came a few days after retail inflation rose 5.11% in January against 4.28% in December. 

The Indian rupee was trading slighlty lower at 62.20 to the US dollar compared to Friday's close of 62.19. 

Foreign institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 390 crore (Rs 3.9 billion) on Friday, as per provisional stock exchange data. 

BSE FMCG index was the top gainer up 1.8% followed by Realty, Power, Auto and Capital Goods indices. BSE Oil and Gas, Consumer Durables, Healthcare and Bankex were the top sectoral losers. 

ITC ended up 1.8% extending its previous day’s 2% gain on BSE, after the company acquired trademarks for 'Savlon' and 'Shower To Shower' in India from Johnson & Johnson for an undisclosed amount. Hindustan Unilever gained 1.4%. 

HDFC Bank pared early gains to end flat. The bank reporter better-than-expected third quarter earnings. HDFC Bank, India’s second largest private sector bank, has reported a 20 per cent growth in net profit in October-December quarter to Rs 2,794.5 crore. Mortgage lender HDFC was up 1%. 

Sun Pharma ended down 2.7% after reporting 7% year-on-year (yoy) decline in its consolidated net profit at Rs 1,425 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2014 (Q3). The pharmaceutical company had profit of Rs 1,531 crore in the same quarter last fiscal. 

IT shares ended mixed. TCS and Wipro ended higher by 1.8% and 0.2% each while Infosys ended down 0.4%. Infosys has announced a definitive agreement to fully acquire Panaya Inc., a leading provider of automation technology for large scale enterprise software management, in cash, for an enterprise value of $200 million. 

Hindalco ended down 1.7%. On the second day of the coal block e-auction, Hindalco won the Kathautia coal block in Jharkhand for Rs 2,860 a tonne. This means, the company would pay Rs 228 crore a year and Rs 6,800 crore for the life of the block, which is 30 years. 

ONGC ended 0.2% higher. Net profit dropped to Rs 3,571.2 crore during the third quarter, compared to Rs 7,125.9 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year (2013-14). 

RIL ended down 1.6%. According to a media report, Canada's Niko Resources has put up for sale its stake in Reliance Industries' KG-D6 gas block, saying there is uncertainty over the long-term price outlook in India. 

Among other shares, Shares of Suzlon Energy ended up 17% after Sun Pharmaceuticals promoter Dilip Shanghvi and family acquired 23% stake in Suzlon Energy for a total consideration of Rs 1,800 crore. 

In the broader market, the BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices ended mixed. 

Market breadth ended weak with 1,377 losers and 1,251 gainers on the BSE.