Markets: A day of quiet consolidation

The markets seem to have decided to take a breather. After running hard for two days, and adding 325 points in the process, the Sensex took a pause to end at 17519, higher by 29 points and the Nifty closed at 5245, up 14 points.

There was not much happeing in the broader markets, either. The mid-cap and small-cap indices ended flat at 6759 and 8462 respectively.

Moreover, the market breadth was negative, with 1252 advancing stocks as against 1568 declines.

Meanwhile, food inflation fell to 16.3%. Food price index rose 16.30% in the year ended March 6, compared to an annual rise of 17.81% in the previous week. And S&P revised its outlook on India from negative to stable, while affirming the 'BBB-' long-term and 'A-3' short-term sovereign credit ratings on the country.

Jaiprakash Associates was the leading gainer on the BSE, appreciating by 2.5% at Rs 152. Reliance Communications strengthened by 2.1% at Rs 164 and Infosys was up 1.6% at Rs 2784, a 52-week high for the IT bellweather.

And index heavyweight Reliance Industries added 0.8% at Rs 1075.

On the loser's side, M&M weakened by 3.3% at Rs 1,087, ONGC slipped 1.8% to Rs 1054 and TCS lost 1.6% at Rs 826.

ICICI Bank topped the value charts on the BSE with a total turnover of Rs 61.01 crore. This was followed by RIL (Rs 59.90 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 59.60 crore), DLF (Rs 57.10 crore) and SBI (Rs 55.35 crore).

Jaiprakash Associates led the volume charts with trades of 2.06 million. It was followed by Hindalco (1.89 million), DLF (1.80 million), Bharti Airtel (0.99 million) and Reliance Communications (0.97 million).