Despite the mostly positive trend across other Asian markets, Indian indexes opened lower and remained weak for most part of the day. Sharp gains in select banking stocks led to a recovery in late trading and the indexes managed to end with marginal gains.

Sensex closed with gains of 16 points at 13781 and the Nifty gained 2 points to end at 4079. Nifty May futures closed at a premium of 17 points to the spot index.

SBI pulled back smartly from yesterday's fall and was the best performing Nifty stock with gains of 3.81 per cent. PNB ended 2.25 per cent higher

Some of the smaller financial stocks continued to rally. IDBI gained 4.78 per cent and IDFC closed 3.21 per cent higher.

Reliance Capital sustained its up trend and gained another 2.86 per cent.

Suzlon Energy remained firm throughout the day and closed 3.27 per cent higher. Siemens added 2.75 per cent

Oil marketing stocks were firm despite the recovery in crude oil prices. BPCL added 2.22 per cent and HPCL closed 1.49 per cent higher

Tata Steel sustained its up trend and closed 1.49 per cent higher
Reliance Energy was another big gainer and closed 2.9 per cent higher

Hero Honda pulled back after yesterday's gains and ended with gains of 3.01 per cent

Bharti Airtel was the other major gainer and ended 1.28 per cent higher.

Technology stocks remained weak today as well. TCS slipped 2.14 per cent and Infosys lost another 1.08 per cent. HCL Tech ended 1.49 per cent lower

Gail India was the worst performer among Nifty stocks with losses of 4.21 per cent. ONGC closed 1.01 per cent lower
HLL was another big loser, closing 1.77 per cent lower

ACC corrected 1.3 per cent after yesterday's gains

Cipla, SAIL and BHEL were the other major losers

Global markets / crude oil
US markets recovered from an early decline and closed nearly unchanged yesterday. Traders were unwilling to make commitments ahead of the US Fed meeting, due today. The recovery in oil prices and below par earnings from some companies affected sentiment

The Dow index lost less than 0.05 per cent while the S&P 500 index lost more than 0.1 per cent. The NASDAQ closed nearly 0.05 per cent higher

Asian markets were mixed in morning trading, but many of the recovered later. ShanghaiIndonesia added 0.75 per cent and Hong Kong closed 0.65 per cent higher. South KoreaJapan gained 0.5 per cent. Singapore closed with gains of 0.4 per cent. continued to rally despite official warnings about a market bubble and closed nearly 1.6 per cent higher. ended 0.7 per cent higher while

Thailand slipped more than 0.9 per cent and Malaysia ended nearly 0.3 per cent lower.

European markets opened higher and are holding on to their gains. Major European indexes are trading with gains of between 0.15 per cent and 0.35 per cent each in afternoon trading.

Crude oil prices recovered yesterday after many days of sustained losses. Near month NYMEX futures gained more than a per cent and settled at $62.26 per barrel yesterday, but have declined modestly in European trading today.

Large-Cap news flow

• HCL Technologies would provide enterprise-wide IT solutions to SIDBI. The implementation would take 15 months and HCL would provide support for a period of 5 years

Mid-Cap Action

Mid-caps and small caps also recovered after remaining weak till mid-afternoon. The CNX Mid-cap index gained 25 points, or 0.47 per cent, to end at 5260. The BSE mid-cap index gained 0.21 per cent and the BSE small cap index closed 0.3 per cent lower.

Entertainment and media stocks continued to attract interest. Cinevsistas closed at 10 per cent upper circuit today as well and the stock has surged 80 per cent in 5 days. Broadcast Initiatives gained 12.02 per cent and Entertainment Network ended 10.34 per cent higher.

Goldstone Technologies closed at 10 per cent upper circuit

Among the mid-cap banks, Dena Bank gained 6.95 per cent on reports that Canara Bank is bidding to acquire the bank. Indian Bank closed 7.73 per cent higher

Nicco Corp, Voltamp, Britannia and Indo-Asian Fusegear were the other major mid-cap and small-cap gainers

Fortis Healthcare had a weak listing today. Issued at Rs108, the stock opened at Rs109 on the NSE and closed at Rs100

Mid-Day lost another 6.2 per cent and Network 18 ended 5.67 per cent lower

Parekh Aluminex, Pearl Global, Aro Granite, Khandwala Securities and HB Stock were the major losers among mid-cap and small-cap stocks

Mid-Cap news flow

• GHCL said its US subsidiary has received a multi-year $100 million order for home textile from a leading hotel chain
• Sundaram Finance would sell part of its stake in Sundaram Home Finance to French bank BNP Paribas for Rs147 crore. BNP would infuse additional funds into Sundram Home Finance and the stake held by Sundaram Finance in Sundaram Home Finance would decline to 50.1 per cent
• Provogue India said its subsidiary has acquired majority stakes in privately held companies which would develop commercial real estate at Nagpur and Indore
• Kirloskar Brothers, in consortium with other companies, have received orders for water supply and irrigation projects in Andhra Pradesh. The company's portion in the 5 orders received would be nearly Rs210 crore. The company has also received another order worth Rs81.5 crore from NTPC for rural electrification.
• Matrix Laboratories said a leading international organization has signed an agreement with the company to acquire HIV drugs
• Cinemax India has opened a new multiplex in Assam and has tied up to build another multiplex near Mumbai
• 3i Infotech has tied up with another company to offer e-governance services in the country using common service centers under a government initiative
• Dabur Pharma has floated a marketing subsidiary in the US
• Granules India is planning to issue 22 lakh equity shares to IFC at a price of Rs118.1 per share. IFC may also extend a long term loan of $9 million to the company
• McLeod Russell has received High Court approval for the merger of Doom Dooma Tea
• Lupin has received US FDA approval for a drug used for treating bacterial infections
• Cyber Media would issue 10 lakh convertible warrants to promoters
• TNPL is planning to set up an IT park and a mini cement plant
• Uniply would acquire a Hong Kong based company for an undisclosed sum. The company would also acquire land worth Rs6 crore to ensure raw material supplies.
• Alps Industries would issue 20 lakh equity shares and 40 lakh convertible warrants to promoters at a price of Rs65 per share