On the sectoral front, the FMCG and IT were the biggest gainers with rise of 0.93% each. Other than that Health Care, Realty, Teck, Oil and Gas also glosed on the green side. However, Capital Goods was the biggest loser as it fell by 2.09%. Other index that had lost were Metal, Consumer Durables, Bankex, Auto and Power.

Among the NSE stocks that gained the most were HCL Technologies, NTPC, GAIL, DLF and Ranbaxy 2-3.27%. Where as the losers among the Nifty were Reliance Capital as it fell by 7.22%, JP associates was down by 5.17%, Reliance Infrastructure slipped by 4.89%, where as Sesagoa and Siemens was down by 3.57% and 3.4% respectively.

Of the 50 stocks that make the Nifty index, 14 stocks went up, rest fell.

On the whole there was consolidation in the markets ahead of expiry tomorrow. Meanwhile, the Eurpoean markets unnerving as investors are yet to hear anything about the bailout plan. Reports oin the media suggest that Euro zone was divided over terms of Greece's second bailout.

4:12 p.m.

Markets continue to be directionless. Nifty falls 0.88%

The NSE Nifty maintained its range bound trading with the negative bias. A small fall of approximately 0.5-1% fall in the European market has increased the pressure on the Indian stock market and is likely to break its range on the down side soon enough.

Nifty was trading at 4,927.40; with a loss of 43.85 points or 0.88%. In the meantime Sensex was reeling under loss of 140 points or 0.85% at 16,384.

Only 11 of the 50 stocks that comprise of Nifty was trading in the green zone. All other were trading at a loss. The top gainer was HCL with 2.78% followed by DLF 2.29%. The biggest loser among them is Reliance Capital with loss of 5.41%, followed by JP associates that had loss of 5.24%.

About two shares slipped for every share rising. The broader indices too were following the benchmarks - the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices fell 0.77% and 0.76% respectively.

Among the sectoral indices, IT, FMCG and Realty were still in the green. And the top loser was Metal with a fall of 2.20%. Capital good and Consumer Durables also fell over 2%.

2:10 p.m.

Sensex falls 107 points. Metals index falls hard and IT index gains

Stock markets are range bound with negative sentiments. This was on account of being directionless as no clear cut indication from the global arena. Sensex lost 107 points or 0.65% to reach 16,414. Meanwhile nifty fell to 4,934.70; down by 36.55 points or 0.74%.

Heavyweights Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank and L&T plunged 2% each. SBI, BHEL and HDFC were down 1% each.

From the metal space, Sterlite Industries, SAIL, Tata Steel and Hindalco fell 2-3.6%. Hero Motocorp, M&M, Bajaj Auto and PNB lost 2% each.

However, technology stocks like Infosys and HCL Tech gained 1.8% and 3%, respectively. TCS and Wipro were up over 0.5%.

The market breadth was in favour of declines; about 472 shares gained while 863 shares slipped.

Even select Asian markets dipped - Hang Seng fell over 1% and Straits Times was down 0.64%. Shanghai declined 0.3%. However, Nikkei and Kospi were flat. Taiwan gained 0.9%.

The best performing sectoral index was IT with gains of 1.19% and the worst performing sectoral index is Metal was 1.98%.

12:10 p.m.

Stock markets range bound. Sensex down by 16.10 points

Stock markets all over the world are waiting for a solution to the European debt crisis. Once the unanimous decision regarding the term of Greece bail-out is reached, the markets will take a clear direction.

NSE benchmark, Nifty started the day by touching the 5k mark but it soon took to southward movment, it was at 4,955.15 down by 16.10 points or 0.32%.

Meanwhile, the BSE benchmark, Sensex, fell by 48.27 points or 0.29% and was moving at 16,524 level. Other broader index like BSE Midcap and BSE Smallcap was in the positive side with 0.10% and 0.24% gains.

Among the sectoral indices only Information Technology, TECk, Consumer Durables and FMCG were on the positive side. However, the worst performing indices was at BSE Metal followed by BSE Bankex, as the two had fallen by 1.15% and 1.05% respectively.

HCL was the best performing stock among the Nifty stocks followed by infosys and Wipro as all of these were up between 2-4%. The losers belonged to Sterlite industries followed by JP Associates and Reliance power as all of these stocks fell between 2-2.5%.

Meanwhile the most traded stock on the NSE was JP Associates followed by Unitech and Tata Motors.

About 373 shares advanced as against 451 shares declined on NSE. The CNX Midcap rose 18 points to 7,187.

Shree Renuka Suguar, Balrampur Chini and Triveni Engg were down over 0.5%. However, Hathway Cable, Hexaware Tech, Dabur, Titan Industries and Sintex were up 0.8-1.5%. Vivimed Labs gained 3.5%.

10:15 a.m.

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