Markets were trading flat on Tuesday morning, tracking lacklustre cues from Asia and as some amount of profit booking seeped in banking and metal shares after the rally on Monday.
The Nifty reclaimed 5,000 mark and touched a high of 5,006 in opening trade and slipped into the red shortly after. The Nifty was up 5 points, at 4,974 and the Sensex was up 21 points, at 16,545.
Markets across Asia were trading flat as concerns about the Euro-zone officials actually being able to tackle the debt crisis resurfaced. Investors once again turned to the sidelines as details about efforts of the Euro-zone policy makers remained murky.
On Monday, the markets rallied on hopes that leveraging the European Financial Stability Facility will help the struggling European nations avert debt default for which countries would have to vote.
In Asia, the Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average advanced 0.1%, the the Hang Seng index slipped 1% and the Shanghai Composite index was trading flat, up 0.2%.
Back in India, the foreign institutional investors were net buyers of Rs 34 crore, while the domestic institutional were net buyers of Rs 690 crore on Monday.
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Top gainers on the Sensex were Infosys, up 3%, Tata Motors and TCS surged 2% each. Major losers on the Sensex were Sterlite and Hindustan Unilever, down over 1% and ICICI Bank declined 0.9%.
Among the sectoral indices, BSE IT index was leading the gains, up 2.6%. HCL Technologies was up 4%, Wipro gained 2% and Tech Mahindra was up 1.4%.
BSE Bankex and metal indices were leading the losses on down 0.6% each. Investors cashed out of Kotak Mahindra Bank and ICICI Bank, down around 1% each and Bank of Baroda declined 0.8%.
Market breadth was positive, 1009 stocks advanced for 624 stocks which declined.