It was a quiet day for Indian equities after two days of heavy gains as the markets chose to consolidate and pause a little bit on Wednesday. Benchmark equity indices ended flat in the absence of any major trigger during the day's trade. After starting the session on steady notes tracking positive indications from the Asian markets, the local indices witnessed profit booking in the latter part of the day as market experts cautioned that there is very little chance for making sizeable profits from these levels. However, realty and auto sector stocks continued their positive run-up for the second day in a row while power and fast moving consumer goods counters saw minor selling pressure in trade. The quiet session of trade was dominated by the 'Great' (Offshore) bidding war between Bharati Shipyard and ABG Shipyard, which came to a dramatic end . ABG Shipyard has finally exited the race for acquiring Great Offshore and has sold its entire stake of 8.27% in the company. Finally, the 30-share BSE Sensex declined 28.36 points or 0.16% to settle at 17,169.91, while the 50-share S&P CNX Nifty added 1.25 points or 0.02% to end at 5123.25.

The US markets made a mixed close on Wednesday, though the news from the economy front was good as the Federal Reserve said that regional economic activity has generally improved since its last such report in October. The Fed also said that consumer spending has strengthened even as employment and commercial real estate remain weak. In other development the ADP in its private-sector employment report showed improvement from October. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 18.90 points, or 0.18%, to 10,452.68. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose marginally by 0.38 points, or 0.03%, to 1,109.24, and the Nasdaq composite index added 9.22 points, or 0.42%, to 2,185.03.

Crude prices declined on Wednesday after rising for last couple of days as the EIA reported that the oil supplies increased last week, also the dollar showed some strength against other major currencies. Benchmark crude for January delivery dropped $1.83, or more than 2 percent, to $76.54 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude for January delivery fell $1.76 to $77.61 on the ICE Futures exchange.

The Indian rupee closed flat with a negative bias on Wednesday, tracking the choppiness in the equity markets. Though the currency made a good start on supportive global equity cues but when the local share markets turned volatile in the later part of the day the rupee pared all its gains. In the early trades the rupee was able to touch its one week high of 46.13/14. Finally the rupees closed at 46.33, 3 paise weaker compared to its Tuesday's close of 46.54.

The FII on Wednesday were the net buyers in the equity segment with gross buying of Rs 4533.00 crore against gross sell of Rs 2238.90 crore, while in the debt segment they were the net sellers with a gross purchase of Rs 140.90 crore against gross sales of Rs 310.30 crore.

The US markets closed mixed despite the confirmation of Federal Reserve that the economy was improving; the markets were expecting a considerable drop in job loss though it declined but was not as expected. The Asian markets have made a good start and barring the Chinese market all the indices are trading in green. The domestic markets declined in previous trading after rising for two consecutive days. IT and the export counters were in somber mood as the dollar declined further, today the cues for the domestic markets is of a positive start  the IT sector might get some recovery with improvement in dollar.

Support and Resistance: S&P CNX Nifty and BSE Sensex

                                                          Nifty Top volumes

• It has been reported that DLF Assets is once again considering to list its IPO in Singapore SGX by January 2010.
• Uninor to launch its mobile telephony services in eight of India's 22 telecom service areas today.
• Steel Authority of India has reduced prices of flat steel products sold in the spot market by up to Rs 500/tonne.
• Tata Motors has reported 65% surge in its November month sales figure. The company has sold total 54,108 vehicles in November 2009.
• HDFC has launched a special home loan product at a fixed rate of 8.25% per annum up to March 31, 2012.

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