Helped once again by the firm trend across most global markets, frontline Indian indexes opened firm and gained more than a per cent each. They held on to their gains till mid-afternoon before slipping hard and ending with marginal losses.

Sensex closed with losses of 10 points at 13771 and the Nifty lost 12 points to end at 4067. Nifty May futures closed at a discount of 23 points to the spot index.

ONGC slipped in the afternoon and was mostly responsible for the fall in indexes. The stock finally ended 2.29 per cent lower

Siemens was the worst performer among Nifty stocks, losing 3 per cent. L&T ended 1.33 per cent lower

Zee Entertainment continued to decline and lost another 3 per cent
Tata Power lost 2.31 per cent

M&M slipped further and ended 1.85 per cent lower

Among pharma stocks, Ranbaxy lost 1.79 per cent and Sun Pharma declined 1.5 per cent

IPCL and Tata Motors were the other major losers

Metal stocks continued to shine today as well. Tata Steel was the best performer with gains of 2.5 per cent. Sterlite Industries gained 2.2 per cent and Hindalco closed 1.21 per cent higher

HDFC saw a sharp surge today and was the best performing Nifty stock with gains of 5.76 per cent. HDFC Bank closed 1.72 per cent higher

Bajaj Auto rallied 1.76 per cent and Hero Honda sustained the up trend with gains of 0.97 per cent

BPCL added 1.28 per cent on lower crude oil prices

Glaxo continued to do well and added 1.55 per cent

ITC was the other major gainer and ended 1.87 per cent higher

Global markets / crude oil
US markets resumed their rally yesterday after the US Fed kept interest rates unchanged. The fed statement was on expected lines and did not cause any worries in the markets. The decline in crude oil prices and sustained news-flows on large corporate deals supported the up trend.

The Dow index gained 0.4 per cent while the S&P 500 index added more than 0.3 per cent. The NASDAQ closed nearly 0.2 per cent higher

Asian markets were mostly positive today. Shanghai once again led the region with gains of 0.9 per cent, taking total gains in 3 sessions to nearly 5 per cent. Singapore added close to 0.5 per cent while Indonesia ended 0.45 per cent higher. South Korea gained 0.4 per cent and Malaysia added 0.35 per cent. Thailand ended nearly 0.15 per cent higher.

Hong Kong lost nearly 0.5 per cent and Japan shed early gains to close 0.05 per cent lower.

European markets were mixed in opening trading, but have slipped later. Major European indexes are trading with losses of between 0.2 per cent and 0.4 per cent each in afternoon trading.

Crude oil prices resumed their decline yesterday. Near month NYMEX futures lost more than a per cent and settled at $61.55 per barrel yesterday and have recovered modestly in European trading today.

Large-Cap news flow

• Cairn India has received a 6 month extension of its exploration license to further evaluate the hydrocarbon potential in the allotted area. The company would drill more exploratory wells to assess two discoveries in the region.

Mid-Cap Action

Mid-caps and small caps also gave up most of their early gains, but managed to end higher. The CNX Mid-cap index gained 18 points, or 0.35 per cent, to end at 5278. The BSE mid-cap index gained 0.41 per cent and the BSE small cap index closed 0.48 per cent higher.

Momentum buying continued in mid-caps and many stocks ended at upper price circuits. Shivam Auto and Page Industries closed at 20 per cent upper circuits

XPro India, Piramyd Retail, Adhunik Metalliks, Autoline Industries, Essdee Alumiuium, Patel Engineering, GVK Power and FCI OEN all closed at 10 per cent upper circuits

Moser Baer, Nicholas Piramal and Apollo Tyres were the other major mid-cap and small-cap gainers

Among recent gainers, Entertainment Network lost 5.34 per cent and Broadcast Initiatives corrected 5.07 per cent.

Shree Rayalaseema Hi-Strength, Maharashtra Scooters, HFCL, UFlex, Gemini Communications, STI India and Redington were the major losers among mid-cap and small-cap stocks

Mid-Cap news flow

• IndiaBulls Financial has completed its $275 million GDR issue
• Subex Azure has won a new order for fraud management and revenue assurance software from an African telecom company
• Hindustan Motors has re-started operations at its unit which was closed due to labor unrest
• Shringar Cinema has acquired a movie theatre in Bangalore
• BSEL Infrastructure would issue 59 lakh equity shares to promoters at the price of Rs77 per share
• Pratibha Industries has won an order worth Rs222.52 crore for a water supply project in Mumbai
• Autoline Industries has signed an agreement to acquire majority stake in a US-based company
• Lupin has acquired a majority stake in a domestic pharma company focused on steroids
• Lumax Industries would issue 10 lakh equity shares on a preferential basis at a price of Rs540.03 per share to a Japanese company
• Sterlite Optical said its current order book for power transmission conductors is around $62 million
• Ansal Properties has signed an agreement with a Dubai-based company to develop integrated townships in India