Nifty ends flat amid choppy trade; StanChart most active

Indian equity benchmarks closed the first session of the week with moderate gains amid volatility. The market traded in a negative terrain, reacting weak global cues post the disappointing US employment data. But benchmarks managed to bounce back in the last one hour of trade following recovery in European markets as it seemed that market factored in negatives.

The 50-share NSE Nifty rose just 15 points, to end at 5,532. Rahul Mohindar, viratechindia.com sees the markets really trotting between two very interesting levels - 5480 on the downside and about 5630 on the upside.

"I think the market is still very much directionless. The odds still continue to be towards the downside. I don't think there is a reason why the Nifty would comfortably cruise through 5630 like a lot of people are imagining with this little intraday bounce back," he said.

The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 44 points, to close at 18,420. European markets, which were trading lower in initial trade, bounced back to trade flat, at the time of closing of Indian equities.

Shanti Nair, Global Strategist, Nomura feels that India is at the high end of valuation range and is more expensive compared to other emerging markets.

Nair is, therefore, underweight on Indian market. She said, ''We have an underweight position on EMs as a whole and within that India stands out as one of the countries which we would want to underweight even across among EMs. This is mainly because of our view on inflation and monetary tightening and continued monetary tightening in India.'' There is some more bad news in store as Nair sees market to be volatile in near-term.