Banks, infrastructure help Nifty to end at 5500

Indian equity benchmarks shut shop with moderate gains on Tuesday, following positive global cues. The market had erased some gains due to higher-than-expected inflation numbers during the day but in the last couple of hours it managed to recover those losses.

The 50-share NSE Nifty tried very hard to hold the 5500 mark at the close after being in a narrow range of 5490-5515. The index gained 17.70 points, to end at 5,500.50 and the 30-share BSE Sensex went up 42.63 points, to settle at 18,308.66. Market could be waiting for some direction from the RBI policy, which is scheduled on June 16. C Jayaram, ED of Kotak Mahindra Bank said lot of the bad news particularly with respect to inflation; interest rates, have already got priced in. "Today