Sensex clocks slim gains in another muted session

Indian markets managed to clock in modest gains thanks to smart recovery by index heavyweights like Reliance Industries and Bharti Airtel. The Consumer Goods, Oil & Gas and the Pharma stocks were in demand on the other hand, the Realty and select stocks were under pressure. Finally, the BSE Sensex added 59 points to end at 17,578 after touching a high of 17,601 and a low of 17,502. The NSE Nifty added 17 points to end at 5,263.

In Asia, the Nikkei in Japan was up 0.8%, while Australia's S&P/ASX gained by 0.2%. Shanghai SE Composite advanced by 0.7% and Hang Seng index in Hong Kong was up 0.3%.

In Europe, stocks were trading with a positive bias. The DAX in Germany was up 0.3%, the CAC 40 index in France was up 0.4% and the FTSE in the UK was up 0.5%.
 
Coming back to India, among the BSE sectoral indices, the Consumer Durable index was the top gainer, adding 1%, followed by the Oil & Gas index that was up 0.8% and the BSE Pharma index was up 0.5%. The BSE Mid-Cap index ended flat while BSE Small-Cap index added 0.4%.

Outside the frontline indices, the big gainers in the broader market were Bharat Electronics, Chambal Fert, Apollo Hosp and MTNL. On the other hand, losers included CESC, Crompton Greaves, Federal Bank and P&G.