After two days of decline the market rallied but it is still in no man's land

The market opened flat with a negative bias, following a weakening trend in Asian markets, on concerns over the effect of high crude prices on the economy. The Sensex opened 16 points lower at 17,972 and the Nifty was down three points at 5,411. The market succumbed to profit booking within 15 minutes of opening, falling to the day's low, the Sensex down 38 points at 17,950 and the Nifty also losing 12 points to 5402.

Buying in select sectors soon helped the indices to erase early losses and pushed them into a higher trajectory. The gains came from banking, healthcare and metal sectors. The indices gained some momentum to breach the psychological 18,000 and 5,400 levels, respectively, then moved sideways.

The market scaled to the intra-day high in the last half an hour, with the Sensex touching 18,218 and the Nifty going up to 5,485. The indices closed trade a tad off these highs. The Sensex ended 218 points higher at 18,206 and the Nifty closed at 5,480, a gain of 66 points. The advance-decline ratio on the National Stock Exchange was 833:550.

Among the broader indices, the BSE Mid-cap index gained 0.92% and the BSE Small-cap index rose 0.65%.

The top sectoral gainers were BSE Realty (up 1.92%), BSE Bankex (up 1.85%), BSE Healthcare (up 1.51%), BSE Metal (up 1.33%) and BSE Oil & Gas (up 1.17%). There were no losers in the sectoral space today.

Cipla (up 4.13%), ICICI Bank (up 3.76%), Jaiprakash Associates (up 3.48%), DLF (up 2.78%) and BHEL (up 2.43%) were the major Sensex gainers. The main losers were Mahindra & Mahindra (down 1.02%), Jindal Steel (down 0.64%), TCS (down 0.45%) and Bajaj Auto (down 0.20%).

Faced with surging raw material costs, Indian carmakers now face three additional serious challenges, including a shortage of key components that could impact their performance this year.

While car makers could pass on the burden of increased input costs to customers, a shortage of components, compounded by the 11th March earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) rate hikes, which could result in higher car loan rates, have made investors jittery about their prospects over the short- to medium-term.

Markets in Asia settled mixed, with the Nikkei 225 closing lower on profit booking, after recent gains, as high radiation levels increased food safety concerns in the country. Stocks in China ended higher, on support from the realty sector and financials, ahead of a slew of closely-watched earnings that kick off later this week. However, the ongoing turmoil in West Asia remains a cause for worry.

The Shanghai Composite surged 1.03%, the Jakarta Composite advanced 1.09%, the KLSE Composite gained 0.19%, the Straits Times rose 0.65% and the Taiwan Weighted climbed 0.44%. On the other hand, the Hang Seng fell 0.14%, the Nikkei tumbled 1.65% and the Seoul Composite shed 0.07%.

Back home, institutional investors-both foreign and domestic-were net buyers in the equities segment on Tuesday. Foreign institutional investors pumped in Rs236.29 crore and inflows by domestic institutional investors stood at Rs96.04 crore.

Offshore services provider Global Offshore Services, formerly known as Garware Offshore Services (up 0.40%), has said that it has bagged a four-year contract in Brazil worth Rs194.5 crore.

The company's large platform supply vessel (PSV), MC Beaucephalus, owned by its subsidiary, Global Offshore Services BV, will be deployed in Brazilian waters for an approximate value of Rs48.6 crore per annum, according to a company statement.

Pharmaceutical major Wockhardt (up 4.64%) has received ad-interim relief from the division bench of the Bombay High Court through a stay on the admission of the winding up petition filed by the trustees to the Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds (FCCBs) issued by the company. The company has agreed to deposit in court Rs115 crore by 3 May 2011, as per direction of the Bombay High Court.

Jet Airways (down 1.46%)-India's premier international airline together with JetLite-has retained its leadership position in the Indian aviation sector with a market share of 26.1%. The airline has also posted a 16th consecutive month of double-digit growth with robust international and domestic passenger traffic in February 2011.

Jet Airways carried 3.81 lakh international revenue paying passengers in February 2011, with an overall seat factor of 81.1%. The airline has carried 8.24 lakh domestic revenue passengers with a seat factor of 76.5%.