Markets witness profit booking but remain positive

Markets ended flat amid a volatile trading session on Tuesday with index heavyweight Reliance Industries leading the gains along with financials and capital goods shares.

The Sensex ended at 16,020, up 32 points and the 50-share Nifty closed at 4,863, up 15 points.

In intra-day deals, the Sensex had touched a high of 16,138.

The Asian markets ended in green as investors looked to European policymakers and the wider G7 to take decisive action to address the worsening euro zone crisis.

Nikkei advanced 1% to 8,382, Hang Seng added 0.4% to close at 18,259 and the Shanghai Composite closed flat at 2,312 levels.

The European markets were trading on a listless note. The CAC was up 15 points at 2,969.

While, DAX slipped 0.8% to 5,925 levels. The markets in London are closed today on account of holiday.

Capital goods shares firmed up on value buying at lower levels after the sell off last week.

The BSE capital goods index jumped 2% or 174 points to shut shop at 8,904.

Havells India, Crompton Greaves, Thermax, Alstom Projects, Punj Lloyd, Lakshmi Machine Works and SKF India were the top gainers from this space.Larsen & Toubro was the top gainer among the Sensex stocks, up 3.2% to Rs 1,211 while BHEL ended 1.5% higher.

NTPC jumped 2% to Rs 147 after commissioning of the Unit # 3 of 660 MW of Sipat Super Thermal Power Station Stage-I.

"The Unit # 3 of 660 MW of Sipat Super Thermal Power Station Stage-I has been commissioned on June 02, 2012. With this, the total capacity of NTPC group has become 38,674 MW," the state-owned power utility company said in a filing.

Banking stocks witnessed renewed buying

interest on hopes of a rate cut by the Reserve Bank in the upcoming policy review.

BSE banking index- bankex ended higher by nearly 1% or 89 points to 10,891. All the stocks in this space ended higher in trades today. HDFC Bank, SBI and HDFC ended up 0.7-1.7%.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries ended up 1.4% at Rs 702 on shortcovering after the stock crossed the Rs 700 mark.

In the F&O segment the stock witnessed call writing at Rs 700 level in the June series.

On the other hand, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, ITC, DLF, Coal India, HUL, Jindal Steel, Sun Pharma and Tata Steel were among the laggards.

Power, oil & gas, healthcare, IT and PSU indices also ended the day with gains.

At the same time, realty stocks witnessed the selling pressure.

The BSE realty index was the top loser, down 1.4% to 1,552. Led by losses in frontline stocks such as Hindustan Unilever and ITC the FMCG index ended weaker by 1% at 4,472 levels.

Consumer durables, metal, auto and teck indices also closed lower.

Among the individual stocks, MphasiS dipped over 5% to Rs 345 after the management reduced the revenue outlook from Hewlett-Packard (Non Enterprise Services) to around $55-66 million for FY13.

Pantaloon Retail (India) gained 2% to Rs 151, extending its Monday's 7% surge after the US-based private equity fund Warburg Pincus LLC agreed to buy a controlling stake in company's financial arm Future Capital Holdings for Rs 692 crore.

The broader markets were in line with the benchmark indices. The BSE mid-cap index ended higher by 19 points at 5,828 and the small-cap index added 13 points to close at 6,193.

The overall breadth was positive a 1,406 stocks advanced while 1,291 stocks declined.