Sensex, Nifty close flat; ITC tanks 3.4%; HDFC Bank up 2%

Indian equity benchmarks closed flat amid a lacklustre trade on Monday as the market is looking for a fresh trigger to extend rally. Benchmarks had surged over 2% on Friday after European leaders agreed (at its EU summit in Brussels) to support the region's banks and Indian government issued the GAAR draft guidelines.

The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 31 points to close at 17,398.98. Meanwhile the 50-share NSE benchmark touched an intraday high of 5,302.5, before closing flat at 5,278.60 (down 0.3 points).

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A rally of more than 1% in European markets helped the Nifty to touch 5,300 level during the day. France's CAC and Germany's DAX rose 1% each at 15:31 hours IST. Britain's FTSE went up 0.5% amid optimism over Europe's move to solve debt crisis, but weak manufacturing data globally capped the market's upside.

Back home, cigarette major ITC tanked 3.4% (intraday falling more than 4%) after Uttar Pradesh government hiked value added tax on cigarettes to 50%.

Jindal Steel & Power tumbled 2.5% after the Odisha government has ordered stoppage of operations at Keonjhar mines. Mining lease for Keonjhar mines is with Sarda Mines, which supplies ore to JSPL.

Country's largest commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors declined 1.5% after disappointing sales numbers for June. Two-wheeler major Hero Motocorp fell 1.3% ahead of auto sales numbers. However, top car maker Maruti Suzuki and utility vehicle major M&M gained 1% each after good sales numbers.

Country's largest lender State Bank of India and its rival HDFC Bank rallied 1-2% whereas ICICI Bank was down 0.6%. Housing finance company HDFC rose 1%.

Top software services exporter TCS lost 1.4% while telecom operator Bharti Airtel moved up 1.6%.

Among metals and mining stocks, Tata Steel, Sterlite Industries, Hindalco Industries and Coal India climbed 0.7-1.6%.

The broader markets outperformed benchmarks as the BSE Midcap Index was up 0.9% and Smallcap up 1%. Advancing shares outnumbered declining by 1778 to 1001 on the BSE.

Real estate stocks rallied quite smartly; DLF and Indiabulls Real were up 3% each. Unitech and Nitesh Estates rallied over 5%.

In the second line shares, Adani Enterprises surged 5.5% and Adani Power gained 2.5%.

HCC, Punj Lloyd, Lanco Infratech and Bajaj Hindusthan shot up over 4%. Educomp Solutions, 3i Infotech, Mahindra Satyam, Tech Mahindra and MindTree went up 3-5%.

However, Cox & Kings, Hotel Leela, Manappuram Finance, OnMobile Global and TVS Motor were down 1.5-3.5%.