Sensex flat; RIL, ITC, JSPL, Suzlon, PNB, Tata Steel down

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At 10:26 hours IST - the benchmark Sensex was hovering around previous closing value and was trying to stay in a positive terrain. Even Asian markets were mixed in trade as they were eyeing US non-farm payrolls data today.

For the Nifty, 5500 was acting as a strong resistence level for last few days. Rajan Malik, Director-PCG Advisory at Anand Rathi Financial Services says, the markets still continue to be facing that tough wall at 5,550-5,600 as of now.

"Unfortunately this band seems to be reducing by the day, we had a 500-600 points band on the Nifty which has now become almost 200 points; 5,350-5,400 on the downside and 5,550-5,600 on the upside. The market does not seem to be in a mood to be going anywhere as of now," he said.

The Sensex was trading at 18256, up 18 points and the Nifty was at 5487, up 1.4 points. The broader indices continued to outperform benchmarks; the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 0.8% each.

Top gainers - Unitech was trading at Rs 80.85, up 2.73%; M&M was at Rs 639.60, up 2.13%; Hero Honda was at Rs 1,730.15, up 2.03%; Infosys was at Rs 2,798.50, up 1.65%; ONGC was at Rs 1,341.30, up 1.51% and Bharti Airtel was at Rs 336.95, up 0.87%.

Top losers - Suzlon Energy was trading at Rs 50.10, down 2.34%; Axis Bank was at Rs 1,372, down 1.16%; Jindal Steel was at Rs 691.50, down 1.02%; ITC was at Rs 163.85, down 0.97%; PNB was at Rs 1,201.45, down 0.91%; Jaiprakash Associates was at Rs 113.60, down 0.96%; Reliance Industries was at Rs 928.70, down 0.9% and Tata Steel was at Rs 540.30, down 0.58%.

Piramal Healthcare, Prakash Steelage, Suzlon Energy, Jindal PolyFilm, Hindustan Copper, Reliance Industries, Unitech and Mahindra Satyam were the most active shares on exchanges.

In the midcap space, Nirma rose 13.3%. MVL, Bajaj Finserv, Zydus Wellness and Shriram City gained 5-6.7% while State Bank of Mysore, Peninsula Land, KGN Industries, Kwality Dairy and Indian Metals lost 1.3-2.7%.

In the smallcap space, Shristi Infra, Goodyear, Venkys, Brandhouse and Zenith Infotech rallied 7-10% while Bhansali Eng, Parenteral Drug, Marathon Nextgen, India Securities and AGC Networks fell 2.4-3.7%.

About 2137 shares advanced while 1076 shares declined on BSE. Nearly 171 shares were unchanged.

Asian markets like Nikkei and Taiwan were up 0.5% & 1.4%, respectively. Kospi rose 0.2% while Shanghai lost 0.5% and Straits Times went down 0.16%.