Benchmark equity indices witnessed yet another flat day of trade, in fact third in a row, on Wednesday as investors continued to stay on the sidelines ahead of the biggest event of the year -- Union Budget 2010-11 -- and futures and options (F&O) expiry for current month series due later this week. The Railway Minister Mamta Banerjee announced a populist Rail Budget for the next fiscal. The minister slashed the freight rate for food grains and kerosene by Rs 100 per wagon against the general expectations of hike in rates except for the essential commodities. Passenger fares were kept unchanged in the budget. She said in her budget speech that the time has come for the business community to come and join hands to build partnerships with the railways. Banerjee also assured that they were not going for privatisation of the railways. Meanwhile, the Railway Budget -- which put emphasis on the social responsibility and financial viability -- failed to bring any cheers to equities and the key indices finished the day with marginal losses after two days of positive closing. Consumer durables, healthcare and auto stocks caused most of the damage to the indices. Rail-related stocks tumbled after the budget announcement. On the other hand, realty, information technology and oil & gas stocks showed some resilience in trade. New debutant on the indices, D B Realty and Emmbi Polyarns, received a lukewarm welcome from investors. D B Realty finished 2.7% lower from its issue price while the shares of Emmbi Polyarns plunged 36% in trade. Finally, the BSE Sensex slipped 30.35 points or 0.19% to end at 16,255.97 while the S&P CNX Nifty declined 11.45 points or 0.24% to finish at 4858.60.

The US markets bounced back on Wednesday and recovered almost what they have lost in previous session. The assertive statement of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to the House Financial Services Committee that he still expects rates will remain low for an extended period, gave the required support to the markets. Financial stocks were the main gainers of the day and major banking stocks rose by about 2 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 91.75 points, or 0.89%, to 10,374.16. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index added 10.64 points or 0.97%, to 1,105.24, and the Nasdaq composite index closed higher by 22.46 points, or 1.01%, to 2,235.90.

Crude prices resumed their rally after a halt of one day and moved higher by more than 1 percent on Wednesday as the dollar fell against other major currencies, following Bernanke's remarks because low interest rates make the currency a less attractive investment. Also there was report that on a weekly basis, gasoline demand was up at 9.064 million barrels per day, or 6.4 percent. Benchmark crude for April delivery gained $1.14, or 1.45 percent, to settle at $80 a barrel after trading in a range of $78.25 to $80.13 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, April Brent crude ended up 84 cents, or 1.09 percent, at $78.09 a barrel.

The Indian rupee continued to weaken on Wednesday due to the strength in dollar. The domestic currency started on soft note tracking the sluggishness in the regional equity markets and continued its trend with the similar opening trade of the local markets, but as soon as the domestic markets recovered the rupee too pared all its losses. It was in the last hours that the rupee again started receding on the month end dollar demand from importers. Finally the rupee closed at 46.32/33, 8 paise lower compared to its Tuesday's close of 46.24.

The FII on Wednesday were the net buyers in the equity segment with gross buying of Rs 2107.90 crore against gross sell of Rs 1364.10 crore, while in the debt segment they were the net sellers with gross purchase of Rs 122.00 crore against the gross sales of Rs 279.00 crore.

The US markets bounced back on Wednesday after Bernanke's testimony that signaled the interest rates to remain low for some more time. The Asian markets have made a mixed start and some of the indices are trading lower by about half a percent while the Chinese markets are putting resilience for last couple of days and are up by about a percent. The domestic markets closed with modest loss in the previous session as the rail budget was unable to put any major impact on the markets and even the railway stocks lost their spirit. Today is the last trading day of February F&O series and the markets may see volatility in the last hours though the start is likely to be cautious, one day ahead of the union budget.

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

                                                             Nifty Top volumes

• Suzlon's arm REpower Systems AG has entered into an agreement with the French firm, Akuo Energy SAS for supplying 25 wind turbines.
• DLF is pricing its housing project -- Capital Greens 3-- in Delhi at 60% higher than its previous launch.
• It has been reported that Banks are discussing a $7 billion, five-year, offshore loan to back Bharti Airtel's $9 billion offer to buy Zain's African cellular assets.
• State Bank of India is planning to raise up to Rs10000-20000 crore through a rights equity issue in 2010-11.
• RCom has launched an array of unique packs for its pre-paid as well as post-paid CDMA Fixed Wireless Phone subscribers on Pan-India basis.

The company plans to increase its power generation capaci...