The market opened on a subdued note this morning on weak global cues but buying in select stocks in the morning and noon session saw the benchmarks moving above the neutral line. However, the negative of the influential European markets took the domestic market in the red once again. While the market was in a consolidation mood today, it ended in the green for three days in a row.

The Sensex closed at 18,666, up 21.65 points (0.12%), still above the crucial 18,650 levels. The index touched a high of 18,721 and a low of 18,540 today. The Nifty ended 3.85 points up (0.07%) at 5,608. The benchmark scaled an intraday high of 5,625 and a low of 5,567 during the session.

The market breadth was positive. Of the 30 stocks traded on the Sensex, 18 ended in the green while 12 settled lower. The Nifty had 29 advancing stocks against 20 declining stocks while one stock returned unchanged. The broader indices outperformed the key benchmarks today. The BSE Mid-cap index gained 0.34% and the BSE Small-cap index advanced 0.59%.

The top performers on the Sensex were ACC (up 2.98%), Bharti Airtel (up 2.59%), State Bank of India (SBI) (up 2.07%), Hindustan Unilever (HUL) (up 1.74%) and Sterlite Industries (up 1.61%). The top Sensex losers were Reliance Infrastructure (R-Infra) (down 1.77%), ITC (down 1.21%), ICICI Bank (down 1.04%), HDFC Bank (down 0.68%) and Maruti Suzuki (down 0.67%).

The sectoral gainers were led by BSE TECk (up 0.86%), BSE IT (up 0.57%) and BSE Realty (up 0.46%). The top losers were BSE Capital Goods (CG) (down 0.45%), BSE Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) (down 0.43%) and BSE Power (down 0.27%).

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) today said deregulation of interest rates on savings accounts is on its radar and it will soon be examining the possibility of implementing the same. However, the central bank has not fixed any time frame for the move.

At 3.5% per annum, interest on savings accounts is the only regulated rate in the banking system presently and a highly contentious one given its impact on the common man.

Markets in Asia were down for the second day in a row as the European crisis deepened once again. The Irish-German 10-year yield spread widened seven basis points to 380 points while the yield gap for Portugal jumped nine basis points to 363 basis points. This apart, National Bank of Greece SA said it plans to raise €2.8 billion ($3.6 billion) of capital and German exports slumped 1.5% in July, the first drop in three months.

The Shanghai Composite was down 0.11%, Hang Seng tanked 1.46%, KLSE Composite gave up 0.01%, Nikkei 225 tumbled 2.18%, Straits Times declined 0.81%, Seoul Composite was down 0.48% and Taiwan Weighted lost 0.42%. On the other hand, Jakarta Composite added 0.43%.

Wall Street settled in the red on Tuesday on worries that the European imbroglio may worsen. European banks slid on concern that stress tests understated potential losses from sovereign debt. This apart, Germany's banking association said the country's 10 biggest banks may need €105 billion in new capital as regulators revamp rules designed to prevent future crises. The Dow fell 107.24 points (1.03%) at 10,340. The S&P 500 Index fell 12.67 points (1.15%) at 1,092. The Nasdaq fell 24.86 points (1.11%) at 2,208.

Petrol and diesel prices in the country will rise marginally from midnight tonight, following the government's decision to raise the commission paid to petrol pump dealers.

The increase in petrol prices across the country is in the range of 11 to 12 paisa per litre, while diesel will be around 9 to 10 paisa per litre more expensive.

Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of stocks worth Rs21 crore on Tuesday. Domestic institutional investors were net buyers of equities worth Rs441 crore on the same day.

Indian pharmaceutical company Sun Pharma (up 2.05%), which was fighting a takeover battle with Israeli pharma major Taro, today said that the Supreme Court of Israel has given the ruling in favour of the company.

The Court has unanimously dismissed the appeal of Taro Pharmaceutical Industries and has withdrawn its temporary order that prohibited the closing of the offer before its ruling, the Indian drug maker said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.

Hindustan Copper (HCL) (down 1.99%) is in talks with Karnataka-based Hutti Gold Mines to form a joint venture for reviving copper mining activities, which were abandoned by the state public sector undertaking (PSU) almost a decade ago.

The HCL proposal for resuming copper mining at Chitradurga reserves of the Hutti Gold Mines in Karnataka, where mining was abandoned in 2001, comes at a time when the state-owned firm is in the process of augmenting production and reviving operations.

Drug maker Suven Life Sciences (up 9.56%) today said Australia and Mexico have granted product patents for its new chemical entity (NCE), used in the treatment of nervous system disorders. The NCE patent includes compounds discovered by Suven that are being developed as therapeutic agents for treatment of disorders like Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson’s and schizophrenia.

The company now has eight product patents for NCEs for central nervous system (CNS) therapy in both the countries, the company said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange.