Nifty, Sensex lacklustre; Coal India top loser

The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty were completely lacklustre in trade as they were moving just around their previous closing values. The market needs a fresh trigger to take three-day rally further - the trigger may be in the form of reforms by the Indian government and globally it may be outcome of European Central Bank and Federal Reserve's meet.

The BSE benchmark was down 0.5 points to 17,235.68 and the NSE benchmark was flat at 5,228.50, but the broader markets outperformed benchmarks. The BSE Midcap Index rose 0.8% and Smallcap gained 1%.

Drug producer Cipla trimmed gains to 4% from 6.5% due to profit booking. The stock reacted to the strong results, wherein the profit after tax rose by 58% year-on-year to Rs 401 crore in the quarter ended June 2012.

Housing finance company HDFC, engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro and country's largest lender State Bank of India moved up around 1%.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries and top commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors gained 0.4% and 0.6%, respectively.

State-owned power equipment manufacturer BHEL went up over 1.5% while private power producer Tata Power was up 1%.

Shares of HDFC Bank, Infosys, TCS, ONGC, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, Hero Motocorp, Maruti and Wipro were down 0.65%-1%.

Coal India, country's largest coal mining company tanked more than 3% as the company has agreed to supply at least 80% of the coal needed to fuel new power projects, a condition set by the government, but stipulated it could use a mix of 15% imported coal versus 65% domestic. It, however, deferred a decision on penalties the company will pay in case it does not meet the supply guarantees, company officials said on Tuesday.

In the second line shares, S Mobility, Dewan Housing, Delta Corp, Bayer Cropscience and Anant Raj Industries rallied 4-7%.

Among smallcaps, Symphony shot up 20%. Dishman Pharma, SKS Microfinance, MT Educare and Disa India were up 6-8.5%.

About two shares advanced for every share declining on the National Stock Exchange.