The markets ended Tuesday's session on a flat note. The Sensex advanced 44 points to provisionally close at 16,921 and the 50-share Nifty advanced 10 points to end at 5,128.
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(Updated at 1440 hours)
Markets are trading in a tight range in the late noon deals. The Sensex is up 61 points at 16,938 and the 50-share Nifty has advanced 16 points at 5,134 levels.
Meanwhile, the European markets are also trading on a flat note after Moody's ratings agency cut its outlook for Germany.
Moody's cited the costs associated with a potential Greek exit from the euro zone and the possible need to provide support to Spain and Italy as the reason for the change in outlook for top-rated Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
CAC 40 index was down 4 points at 3,097, DAX was up 3 points at 6,422 and the FTSE was up 3 points at 5,536 levels.
The Asian markets ended on a mixed note on fears that Spain may need a financial bailout., Shanghai Composite closed marginally higher while Nikkei closed lower by 20 points at 8,488.
Back home, Hindustan Unilever continues to remains the top gainer among the Sensex stocks. The Stock has advanced 7.5% to its new 52-week high level of Rs 476 after reporting 112% year-on-year (yoy) jump in net profit at Rs 1,331 crore for the quarter ended June 2012, on back of land deals.
Maruti Suzuki, Sterlite Industries, ONGC, ICICI Bank, Jindal Steel and Bharti Airtel are also trading higher by 0.5-3% each.
On the other hand, Wipro is the top loser, down 2.8% at Rs 346 after the company forecast subdued IT services sales for the current quarter after posting an 18% rise in quarterly profit.
Sun Pharma, Mahindra & Mahindra, BHEL, Hero MotoCorp, Cipla and Larsen & Toubro are also among the laggards.
On the sectoral front, the BSE FMCG index is the top gaibner, up nearly 2% or 90 points at 4,966. Consumer durables, oil & gas, metal, realty and PSU indices are also trading higher by 0.5-1% each.
At the same time, weakness is visible in the capital goods, IT, healthcare and teck indices.
Shares of sugar producing companies are in limelight on the bourses in otherwise subdued market after the spot sugar prices increased to a record high on the Vashi wholesale market on heavy demand from stockist. Inadequate rainfall, rising demand due to forthcoming festivities have caused a rise in the sugar prices.
Among the individual stocks, Wockhardt has rallied 6% to Rs 976, also its historic high on back of huge volumes after the overseas investors bought an additional over 2% stake in the company through open market transaction in Q1, taking their total holding to above 5% mark.
Reliance Communications (RCom) is trading lower by almost 4% at Rs 59.60, also its record low on the Bombay Stock Exchange.The stock has slipped 7% in past two trading sessions after the debt-laden telecom firm put on hold the $1-1.5 billion initial public offering of its Singapore-based undersea cable unit, Flag Telecom, citing adverse market conditions.
The broader markets are also trading on a flat note with BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices gaining marginally.
The overall breadth is neutral as 1,339 stocks are declining while 1,293 are advancing.
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