A range-bound trading market settled in the positive zone supported by Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel stocks, which were up by 11% and 5%, respectively. The Sensex was up 169 points at 16,741 (up 1%) while the Nifty was up 50 points at 5020 (up 1%). The indices were up in the early trading session, taking cues from the Asian markets. The bourses traded range-bound for most of the day. The market witnessed a sharp rise in the late trading session and ended near the high point of the day.

Asian stock markets were mixed on concerns about the political situation in Japan. Key benchmark indices in Taiwan, Japan and Hong Kong were down by 0.13% to 1.28%. On the other hand, indices in China, Indonesia and Singapore were up by 0.12% to 0.47%. The market in South Korea was closed for local elections.

The US market was down on Tuesday over the concerns of new banking problems in Europe and a slowdown in Chinese growth. The Dow was down 112 points (1.1%), at 10,024. The S&P 500 was down 18 points (1.7%), at 1,070 and the Nasdaq was down 34 points (1.5%), at 2,222.

Manufacturing growth slowed down across the globe in May. In the US, the headline number showed a slight decline but new orders and exports were stable. The index of national factory activity was at 59.7 in May from 60.4 in April in the US. The index's employment component rose to a six-year high, while new orders were unchanged at 65.7, and exports increased to 62 in May from 61 the previous month.

Closer home, the auto sector posted a firm growth in May. Maruti Suzuki India sold 102,175 vehicles in May, the most for any month and up 28% from a year earlier. Hyundai Motor Co’s Indian unit sold 46,808 units in May including exports, an annual increase of 7%. Two-wheeler manufacturers also posted positive growth in May. Hero Honda Motors posted 14% growth in sales to more than 435,900 units.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that inflation remained higher than its comfort level, signalling that the bank could raise interest rates further. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were the net sellers of Rs526 crore on Tuesday. Domestic institutional investors bought stocks worth Rs210 crore yesterday.

 Shiva Cement (up 1.9%) said that the dispatch of cement and clinker during the period April-May, 2010 was up by 5.5% in comparison to April-May, 2009. However, during May 2010 the figure was down by 1.8% in comparison to the same month last year. Infotech Enterprises (up 0.04%) has signed a long term Master Service Agreement with Seawell AS of Norway to provide engineering support services. Seawell is an international drilling & well services company. This agreement with Infotech would enable Seawell to further expand its engineering capacity and improve competitiveness.

The board of AIA Engineering (up 1.7%) has recommended a final dividend of Rs1.70 per equity share of Rs2 each on 9,43,20,370 shares for the year ended 31 March 2010. Aditya Birla Nuvo’s (up 0.4%) subsidiary, Aditya Birla Minacs Worldwide Ltd has acquired Bureau of Collection Recovery (BCR), a leading US-based accounts receivable management company. With this, Minacs' clients will now have access to BCR's team of collections experts and its experienced top management. Post acquisition, BCR will operate as a subsidiary of Aditya Birla Minacs. Take Solutions (up 6%) has entered into strategic partnership with Reliance Life Sciences to supply its unique and innovative PharmaReady eCTD, SPL and PPM modules. The seamless integration of Take Solutions' technologically advanced products will not only support Reliance Life Sciences in strengthening its product development services, but these customised IT solutions will add a cutting-edge finesse to the present line of business.