Markets have a drab closing

The benchmark indices had an insipid closing for the second consecutive trading session.

The Sensex ended at 17551, down 10 points and the Nifty shut shop at 5278, up two points.

There was underperformance on the broader market front though; the midcap index ended at 6527, lower by 56 points and the smallcap index ended at 7808, down 65 points.

The markets had registered gains of more than 100 points at opening bell in line with the positive sentiment prevailing globally.

Wall Street had jumped for the fourth day on Tuesday on growing hopes that Greece would avoid a debt default; the Dow had risen 109 points and Nasdaq had climbed 57 points.

Earlier, in a vote after market closing, Prime Minister George Papandreou's cabinet had won a vote of confidence in what marks a first step towards a resolution of Greece's debt crisis.

And the Asian markets had a reassuring look about them. But the similarities ended there.

In a repeat of the market behaviour witnessed in the previous session, the domestic bourses were unable to sustain the gains for long.

While the Asian markets maintained their momentum till close, with the Nikkei jumping nearly 2% and peers such as the Seoul and Taiwan gaining in the region of half a percent each, the bourses back home seemingly decided to chart their own course.

The immediate trigger seemed to have been India Meteorological Department prediction that the southwest monsoons will be 95% of the long-period average, less than April forecast of 98% and just short of the 96-104%

range that the IMD considers normal.

The tentativeness on the European front, with the FTSE, CAC and DAX losing up to half a per cent each in mid-day trades, didn't help matters either.

Fast moving consumer goods companies were under pressure as India, one of the world's largest producers and consumers of crops such as rice, sugar and corn, relies heavily on the June-September monsoons for agricultural output.

Hindustan Unilever weakened by 3.4% at Rs 311, Godrej Consumer Products shed 2.4% at Rs 410, Dabur India lost 1.8% at Rs 111 and Marico lost 1.8% at Rs 140 on the BSE.

Among the other major losers, Maruti Suzuki slipped 2.3% at Rs 1119 and Bharti Airtel lost 2.3% at Rs 3841.

TCS also saw profit-booking after the previous session's gains, losing 1.8% at Rs 1083. Index heavyweight RIL pared its intra-day losses towards close, but still ended lower by 0.6% at Rs 846.

On the other hand, M&M soared by 2.5% at Rs 649 to top the gainers charts on the BSE. Cipla gained 1.9% at Rs 322 and ONGC added 1.7% at Rs 260.

The IT space also saw selective buying, with Infosys gaining 0.9% at Rs 2751 and Wipro adding 0.8% at Rs 405.

The market breadth was negative.

Out of 2948 stocks traded on the BSE, there were 1008 advancing stocks as against 1836 declines.