Sensex closes flat; midcap, smallcap indices gain 1%

It was completely lacklustre session for the Indian equity benchmarks on Wednesday due to lack of local and global cues.

Today's consolidation after nearly 600 points rally on the Sensex in previous three sessions indicated that the market seems still hopeful for some actions on reforms after cabinet reshuffle. Even the outcome of Federal Reserve's meeting and European Central Bank's meeting will also be closely watched by the market.

Indian shares closed higher for the fourth consecutive session today. The 30-share BSE Sensex rose 21.20 points to close at 17,257.38 and the 50-share NSE Nifty went up 11.50 points to 5,240.50.

However, the broader markets outperformed benchmarks; the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 1% each as about two shares advanced for every share declining on the National Stock Exchange.

At 15:31 hours IST, France's CAC and Germany's DAX were off day's high on renewed doubts on the European Central Bank's scope for further measures to fight the region's debt crisis. Britain's FTSE went up 0.7% while Spain and Italy markets declined 1%. The Dow Jones futures gained 55 points ahead of policy decisions by US Federal Reserve.

Back home, drug producer Cipla was the top gainer among largecaps, rising 4.4% after the company's net profit rose higher than expected 58% year-on-year to Rs 401 crore in the first quarter of FY13. Sun Pharma and Dr Reddy's Labs gained more than 1%.

Housing finance company HDFC and country's largest lender State Bank of India too rallied over 1% while private sector lenders HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank were marginally down.

Major largecaps like Reliance Industries, ITC, Larsen & Toubro and HUL moved up 0.35%-0.7%. State-owned power equipment manufacturer BHEL surged 2%.

Top commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors gained 0.6% after its total sales for July jumped 15% year-on-year to 74,159 units. Bajaj Auto went up 0.85% ahead of sales numbers tomorrow.

Two-wheeler major Hero Motocorp tanked 1.7% ahead of sales numbers for July that schedule to be announced today after market hours. Top car maker Maruti Suzuki went down 0.8% after weak numbers on month-on-month basis.

Country's largest software services exporters TCS and Infosys were down 1% and 0.4%, respectively. Steel producers Sterlite Industries and Tata Steel fell 1% each.

State-owned oil & gas producer ONGC dropped 2% and top telecom operator Bharti Airtel was down 0.9%.

Coal India, country's largest coal mining company, tumbled nearly 3% after the company agreed to supply at least 80% of the coal needed to fuel new power projects.

In the second line shares, BASF, Century Textiles, Dishman Pharma, PVR, Ceat and Bajaj Corp rallied 4-13% after strong results in the quarter ended June 2012.

Voltas fell nearly 5% ahead of numbers today after market hours. Deccan Chronicle crashed 10% after reports that Karvy filed forgery case against the company.

Adani Power fell nearly 1% after the company posted consolidated loss of Rs 810 crore in the June quarter.

On the National Stock Exchange, advancers outnumbered decliners by 947 to 490.