Benchmark equity indices mirrored their global peers in the Tuesday's session in the absence of any major trigger locally and finally ended the lacklustre day of trade in the flat terrain with negative bias. The broader indices also remained in a sombre mood throughout the session except for the opening up-tick. Reliance Industries (RIL), the largest private sector company of the country, dropped one and a half percent in trade. After getting off to a flat-to-positive start this morning, the main indices slipped into the red within few minutes of trade. The markets witnessed range bound moves in the negative terrain till the late morning session. They managed to pare all of their losses to enter the green for a very brief period of time in late afternoon trades led by revival in some of the Asian markets and positive start for the European shares. But the recovery remained short-lived and the key indices again turned negative with intense selling pressure, which pulled the bourses to their day's lows. The markets finally closed near the lowest point of the day. Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty managed to hold on to the crucial levels of 17,000 and 5,100, respectively on the closing basis. Volumes remained thin in trade today. Profit booking was evident in metal, public sector undertaking and oil & gas stocks while strong employment data from the US boosted sentiments for software stocks in trade. Auto and banking stocks ended mixed. Finally, the BSE Sensex declined 50.06 points or 0.29% to close at 17,052.54 while the S&P CNX Nifty shed 22.50 points or 0.44% to end at 5,101.50.

US markets closed modestly higher on Tuesday, trade remained most of the time range bound. It was a year after the stock market began its comeback from 12-year lows but indices didn't show much action and the natural resource companies fell further while the financial companies that led stocks higher in the past year again drove trading as investors reacted to rumors that the government might prohibit the trades known as short sales in stocks of companies it owns. Though there was good news as well, the Labor Department reported that the number of openings in January rose about 7.6 percent, to 2.7 million, compared with December. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 11.86 points, or 0.11%, to 10,564.38. The S&P 500 index rose 1.95 points, or 0.17%, to 1,140.45 while the Nasdaq composite index closed higher by 8.47 points, or 0.36%, to 2,340.68.

Crude prices declined on Tuesday dropping from the eight-week high mark touched in previous session, as the dollar strengthened and forecasts that weekly inventory data would show domestic crude stocks rose for the week. The trade remained cautious ahead of the industry group American Petroleum Institute's (API) oil inventory report due on Tuesday evening and the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) report on Wednesday. Benchmark crude for April delivery settled 38 cents lower, or 0.46 percent, at $81.49 a barrel, trading in a range of $80.16 to $81.91 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, April Brent crude closed 56 cents off, or 0.7 percent, at $79.91.

The Indian rupee pared some of its previous day's gains on Tuesday. The rupee started on a weak note tracking the weakness in the regional equity markets and some strength in dollar. The other regional currencies too were in somber mood as the investors were taking profit from the rally in currency markets. Though, on the domestic front the choppiness in the equity markets was keeping the tone down for the rupee fearing fund outflow. Finally the rupee closed at 45.63, 10 paise weaker compared to its Monday's close of 45.53.

The FII on Tuesday were the net buyers in the equity segment with gross buying of Rs 4461.30 crore against gross sell of Rs 2201.80 crore, while in the debt segment they were the net sellers with a gross purchase of Rs 178.70 crore against gross sales of Rs 364.40 crore.

The US markets closed with modest gains, a year after the stock market began its comeback from 12-year lows, though the major indices have gained about 60 percent for the year but were unable to show any momentum for the day. The Asian markets have once again started in a somber mood and most of the indices are trading in red while those who have started in green are trading marginally higher. The domestic markets showed some consolidation in the previous session and all the sectors that have gained in recent rally witnessed profit booking, today the markets are likely to get a flat to negative start and the metal and oil &gas sector are likely to remain under pressure.

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

Nifty Top volumes

• Suzlon Wind Energy Corp., the North American subsidiary of Suzlon Energy plans to bring online 728 MW of renewable energy in the US in 2010.
• Daimler has sold its 5.34% stake in Tata Motors for nearly Rs 1863 crore to its biggest shareholder Tata Sons.
• Axis Bank had initiated talks with investors to spin off its private equity (PE) business as a separate entity.
• Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation has allotted 1,600 sq metre of land to GAIL in order to set up its city gas station.
• ONGC has awarded a contract to Garware Offshore Services for platform supply vessel, M V Kailash for a period of one year.