Sensex ends 50 points down at 27,440

After a strong surge on Monday, equity benchmarks indices BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty traded in a narrow range on Tuesday and closed 0.18 per cent and 0.09 per cent lower at 27,440.14 and 8,324.80, respectively.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, the S&P BSE Metal index rose 2.86 per cent to 10,236.64, followed by S&P BSE Oil & Gas index (up 0.95 per cent to 9,617.31), S&P BSE Realty index (up 0.93 per cent to 1627.40), S&P BSE Healthcare index (up 0.52 per cent to 16,654.32), S&P BSE FMCG index (up 0.37 per cent to 7,794.46), S&P BSE Capital goods index (up 0.26 per cent to 16,700). Rest all other indices ended the day in red.

Jayant Manglik, president, retail distribution, Religare Securities, says, "Due to prevailing uncertainty, participants preferred to book profit after the previous session's rally, which capped the upside in benchmark indices. Also, investors' are eyeing development in the Parliament and hence keeping cautious approach."

The S&P BSE Midcap and S&P BSE Smallcap indices rose 0.60 per cent and 0.08 per cent, respectively.

Among Nifty stocks, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Sesa Sterlite, NMDC, Tata Steel and Hindalco were the top performing stocks in Nifty with an intraday gain of 6.40 per cent, 6.12 per cent, 5.12 per cent, 5.03 per cent and 4.51 per cent, respectively.

On the other hand, Cairn India, Mahindra & Mahindra, HDFC, Cipla and State Bank of India stood at the bottom of Nifty's performance charts. These stocks declined by 2.35 per cent, 2.15 per cent, 1.96 per cent, 1.72 per cent and 1.68 per cent, respectively.

The market breadth remained weak on the BSE as 1,361 stocks ended with gains, while 1,386 closed with losses. Volumes for Nifty stocks stood at 1,559 lakh, against 1,367 lakh registered in Monday's trading session.

According to the website of NSDL, foreign portfolio investors stood net sellers in the capital market, selling shares worth Rs 3,018.18 crore on Tuesday.

Among day's major market moving events, brent crude oil traded near 2015 high and was seen near 66 dollars a barrel in the day's trade owing to heightened supply concerns from Libya. Protestors shut the Zueitina port which was one of the only operational port exporting oil from Libya.

For the quarter ended March 2015, Kotak Mahindra Bank announced standalone net profit of Rs 527.14 crore, up 29.4 per cent, against Rs 407.18 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago. Net interest income grew by 16.2 per cent to Rs 1,123 crores against Rs 966.5 crore in the same period last year. As a result, share price of Kotak Mahindra Bank surged 6.54 per cent to Rs 1,423.65.

Asian peer markets Nikkei 225 was up by 0.06% while Hang Seng and Shanghai were down by 1.31% and 4.05% respectively. Greaves Cotton, State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur, Force Motors, GIC Housing Finance, KEC International and Emami Paper mills are some of the companies which may announce their earnings on Wednesday.