The market settled with marginal gains in volatile session. Volatility was witnessed in late trade. There has been a lack of direction on the bourses since the past few trading sessions due to absence of any trigger. Shares from consumer durables sector surged, while IT stocks saw some unwinding in late trade, after opening firm.

The 30-shares BSE Sensex posted marginal gain of 8.59 points to 14,496.31, as per provisional close. It opened slightly lower at 14,478.75 tracking weak global markets. It was also Sensex's low of the day. From here, the index advanced to strike a high of 14,560.48 at 13:11 IST. Sensex swung just 82 points today, between a low of 14,478.75 and high of 14,560.48

Despite lacklusture activity in index stocks, there was plenty of action outside index stocks, indicated by healthy market breadth. On BSE, 1503 shares advanced as compared to 1126 that declined, while 80 remained unchanged.

The Mid-Cap index struck all time high of 6,435.32, after settling 33.71 points higher to 6,417.90

The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 4,677 crore, which picked-up sharply in last one hour trades, from Rs 3620 crore at 14:30 IST

Among the Sensex pack, 16 advanced while the rest declined

State run oil exploration major Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) gained 2.45% to Rs 939.10, on 2.96 lakh shares. It was the top gainer from the Sensex pack. ONGC posted 13% fall in net profit to Rs 2681.64 crore in Q4 March 2007 compared to a net profit of 3085.89 crore in Q4 March 2006. Total income rose 16.35% to Rs 14575.92 crore in Q4 March 2007 (Rs 12528.23 crore). The results were announced during trading hours on Monday, 25 June 2007.

Telecom services provider Bharti Airtel rose 1.89% to Rs 849, on 2.46 lakh shares as buying continued after HSBC Holdings Plc., recently raised price target of India’s top wireless services company by 9%, and said that the company will continue to expand market share. The one-year target was raised to Rs 1110.

State run engineering major Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) gained 1.35% to Rs 1470. The company won an order worth Rs 106 crore from Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL). The announcement of the order win was made during market hours on Monday, 25 June 2007. The contract will be executed in 28 months.

IT stocks which were trading firm till mid-afternoon session, pared gains later. Satyam Computers rose 0.86% to Rs 457, while TCS (down 0.22% to Rs 1123), Infosys Technologies (down 0.50% to Rs 1926.10), and Wipro (down 1.18% to Rs 509) edged lower.

The Indian rupee started at its lowest level in more than two weeks on Tuesday, 26 June 2007, as investors anticipated an abatement in capital inflows on shrinking global risk appetite and a step-up in dollar purchases by oil refiners. In early trade, the rupee was at 41.01/02 per dollar, slipping from Monday's (25 June 2007) 40.875/885.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries (RIL) slipped 0.35% to Rs 1,700, on 5.56 lakh shares. It had struck a high of Rs 1719.40. As per reports, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has referred the issue of pricing natural gas found off the east coast to a committee of secretaries. The move comes in the wake of differences the petroleum ministry has with the power and fertiliser ministries over the methodology adopted for arriving at the gas price.

Pharma major Ranbaxy Laboratories lost 2.40% to Rs 347.50, on 3.13 lakh shares. It was the top loser from the Sensex pack. Goldshield become the latest in a string of companies to pay millions of pounds in out-of-court settlements to the NHS for alleged drug price-fixing. Goldshield's settlement follows April's announcement from the UK's Serious Fraud Office that it intended to charge nine people and five companies with conspiracy to defraud the NHS over certain drug prices and supply. Ranbaxy is one of the 5 companies allegedly involved in a cartel that took place between 1996 and 2000.

Cement stocks Ambuja Cements (down 0.68% to Rs 116.45) and ACC (down 1.27% to Rs 845.25), edged lower on profit booking

Housing finance major HDFC lost 1.27% to Rs 1880, on reports that it has cut floating rates for new home loans by 25 basis points as part of monsoon offer

ICICI Bank continued to shed value since the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) on Monday, 25 June 2007, rejected ICICI Bank’s proposal to divest 24% stake in ICICI Financial Services in favour of foreign investors as a subsidiary could not take part in insurance business. It lost 0.70% to Rs 945.10.

Entertainment Network India (ENIL) jumped 20% to Rs 506.60, on 5.72 lakh shares. Novartis India (up 14.90% to Rs 400), Nicco Corporation (up 19.86% to Rs 33.50), Valecha Engineering (up 10% to Rs 269.40), Kalindee Rail Nirman Engineers (up 10% to Rs 254), and Honeywell Automation (up 9.80% to Rs 2060), surged from small and mid-cap space.

Asian markets were in the red. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index declined on losses in exporters such as Sony Corp. and Canon Inc., while food stocks such as Ajinomoto Co. edged higher. Nikkei was down 21.37 points at 18,066.11. Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted (down 0.82% at 8,865.75), Singapore's Straits Times (down 1.54% at 3,525.10), Hang Seng (down 0.09% at 21,803.57), South Korea's Seoul Composite (down 0.47% at 1,749.55) all edged lower.

China’s Shanghai Composite gained 0.82% to 3,973.31

All the European markets were trading lower.

US markets gave up a big advance and turned lower yesterday, 25 June 2007, as investors suffered a renewed case of the jitters ahead of the Federal Reserve’s meeting on interest rates later this week. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 8.21 points, or 0.06%, to 13,352.05, after rising more than 100 points earlier in the day. Broader indices also declined. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 4.82 points, or 0.32%, to 1,497.74, and the Nasdaq Composite lost 11.88 points, or 0.46%, to 2,577.08.

As per provisional data, FIIs were net buyers to the tune of Rs 19.84 crore in equities, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 179.23 crore on Monday, 25 June 2007.

Volatility is likely to be high on the bourses in the short term ahead of expiry of June 2007 derivatives contracts on Thursday, 28 June 2007. As is the case at the time of expiry of near-month contracts, the extent of rollover to July 2007 contracts from June 2007 contracts will dictate the trend in the near term. A higher rollover indicates that the market players expect bourses to remain firm in the month ahead and vice versa.

Over the next few months, the progress of the July-September monsoon will hold key. The weather office said in April 2007 that this year’s monsoon was likely to be 95% of the long-term average, with a 5% margin of error. The annual monsoon is vital for India’s economic health as it is the main source of water for agriculture, which generates more than a fifth of the gross domestic product

Crude oil prices reversed early weakness to gain 4 cents to $69.18 today, 26 June 2007, following news that a number of oil companies have reportedly refused Venezuela's terms on major oil projects.