The Sensex has to break out above 19,800 and the Nifty above 5,950. If this doesn't happen over the next few days, a decline is on the cards

The market opened flat, tracking the mixed bias in the Asian region. The Sensex opened at 19,621, nine points up from its previous close, while the Nifty shed three points at the opening at 5,989. Profit booking amid a fair degree of choppiness ensured that the indices stayed in the negative for the entire morning session. The market touched the day's low at around 10.30am, with the Sensex retracing 75 points to 19,537, its intra-day low, and the Nifty touched 5,866, down 26 points.

The market inched its way up, and back into the green at around 12.50pm. However, continued fluctuations saw the indices popping in and out of the red quite a few times. The benchmarks scaled their intra-day highs at 2pm, but could not sustain those levels on continued volatility. At the day's high, the Sensex touched 19,665 and the Nifty was at 5,906. The market closed in the red for the third day in a row, the Sensex falling by 21 points to 19,591 and the Nifty erasing six points to close at 5886. The advance-decline ratio on the National Stock Exchange was 960:462.

The market is moving in a tight range after the recent rally. It has to break above the recent highs for the rally to continue. If not, the market will give up some of the recent gains.

The broader indices continued to outperform the Sensex as the BSE Mid-cap index advanced 0.98% and the BSE Small-cap index surged 1.25%.

The noteworthy sectoral gainers were BSE Realty (up 1.12%), BSE Capital Goods (up 0.53%) and BSE Healthcare (up 0.42%). On the other hand, BSE IT (down 0.71%), BSE Oil & Gas (down 0.49%) and BSE TECk (down 0.42%) were the top losers.

HDFC (up 2.31%), Hindalco Industries (up 1.79%), Wipro (up 1.21%), Bharti Airtel and Tata Power (up 0.92% each) were the top Sensex gainers. NTPC (down 2.61%), ONGC (down 2.10%), TCS (down 2%), Maruti Suzuki (down 1.20%) and Sterlite Industries (down 1.16%) settled at the bottom of the index.

Food inflation fell to 9.18% for the week ended 26th March, the lowest level in almost four months, on the back of a decline in the prices of pulses. The quantum of the rise in food prices stood at 9.50% in the previous week. The last time food inflation was lower than this level was during the week ended 27th November last year, when it was at 8.69%.

Markets in Asia settled marginally higher after remaining mixed for most part of the session. Weak earnings guidance by electronics giant Samsung pulled down the market in Seoul. Financials boosted stocks in China as investors opined that a rise in interest rates would help banks.

In economic news across the region, China on Wednesday raised retail fuel prices, for the second time this year, following a spike in global crude prices. Prices rose by as much as 5.8%, with gasoline increasing by 500 yuan ($76) a metric tonne, or 0.37 yuan a litre, and diesel by 400 yuan, or 0.34 yuan a litre.

Also, on Thursday, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) introduced a special lending facility that makes cheap funds available for banks in areas affected by the recent earthquake. The central bank's policy board said it plans to offer 1 trillion yen ($11.73 billion) of one-year loans at 0.1% to financial firms with branches in affected areas in the country. BoJ also kept interest rates unchanged at near-zero levels.

Meanwhile, the Shanghai Composite gained 0.22%, the Jakarta Composite was up 0.07%, the KLSE Composite rose 0.58%, the Nikkei 225 added 0.07%, the Straits Times rose 0.04% and the Taiwan Weighted climbed 0.56%. On the other hand, the Hang Seng shed 0.01% and the Seoul Composite declined 0.21% at the end of the session.

Back home, on Wednesday, inflows from foreign institutional investors (FIIs) into equities were negated by outflows from domestic institutional investors (DIIs). FIIs were net buyers of stocks worth Rs528.47 crore, whereas DIIs were net sellers of shares worth Rs531.05 crore.

In a move that is set to delay and possibly scuttle the biggest acquisition in India's energy sector, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Wednesday referred Vedanta Resources' $9.6 billion buyout of Cairn India (down 2.02%) to a ministerial panel.

The move followed differences in the Cabinet panel on whether London-listed mining group with no experience in oil should be given unconditional approval for buying a company that owns the nation's largest on-land oilfields or after attaching reasonable conditions.

Liquor-maker Radico Khaitan (up 5.95%) today said it has entered into an agreement with Japan-based Suntory Liquors to launch two super premium whiskey brands in India. The company has entered into an exclusive marketing and distribution tie-up with Suntory Liquors to launch Yamazaki 12 YO and Hibiki 17 YO in the country. The tie-up marks Radico's entry into the niche segment in India.

Simbhaoli Sugars (up 4.02%) has announced the transfer of its potable alcohol business into a wholly-owned subsidiary, Simbhaoli Spirits, for a consideration of Rs136 crore, as part of its restructuring exercise.

In March, the company had decided to hive off potable alcohol and power businesses into separate entities to focus on by-product businesses and reduce the cyclical impact of the sugar business.