Strong global cues, rising oil fail to rouse market; Nifty ends flat

Indian equity benchmarks closed the first session of a week on flat note amid a tight range since the beginning of trade. However, the global markets were strong in trade on Monday as the sell-off due to Japan crisis & Middle East concerns was overdone for the time being.

The 50-share NSE Nifty fell 8.95 points, to settle at 5364.75, after witnessing a tight range of 5360-5400. It is likely to see the range bound move around 5300-5500, says Investment Advisor, SP Tulsian.

"I don't think that there is much weakness but there is neither any enthusiasm as well. We need to play on the cues coming in from the global market. May be 5300 could see the renewed buying interest coming in or short-covering coming in and again whenever it moves to about 5500, we see the renewed selling or the shorts getting created. So, may be till expiry till [March 31] we are likely to see the move range bound move around 5300-5500," Tulsian said.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 39.76 points, to close at 17,839.05. Dhiraj Agarwal, Director, Institutional Equities at Standard Chartered Capital Markets too said the short-term was very range bound.

"The market is trying to make up its mind as to which way to go from a medium-term perspective. The series of events which have been unfolding in the last two weeks is a) difficult to fully understand what the implications are and b) difficult to forecast how these events will take shape in terms of how much incremental damage could there be, either it is Japan or the Middle-East. The market is currently displaying a sort of confused move, choppy on either side without going anywhere. It just might continue like that for a while more," he said.

However, global markets were trading strong on buying in beaten down stocks after a sell-off in previous few sessions on reasons like inflation, higher oil prices and Japan crisis.