The markets had yet another lacklustre close. The Sensex ended virtually unchanged at 17526, lower by 13 points and the Nifty closed at 5,249, up 5 points.
The indices had surged in early trades on the back of firm Asian stocks and strong trade data from China, but could not sustain their gains.
The benchmark indices have been stagnant after touching a new 52-week high early last week. And the volumes have been abysmal.
The broader markets, however, continued their outperformance. The mid-cap and small-cap indices gained 0.9% and 1.8% respectively and the market breath was overwhelmingly in favour of the bulls in the ratio of 3:1.
Meanwhile, the exports in December rose to $14.6 billion, up 9.4 per cent over November, on the back of a strong growth in pharma, engineering and auto components sectors.
The realty sector built on Friday's gains. DLF was the leading gainer on the Sensex, strengthening by 2.3% at Rs 399. Indiabulls and Unitech rallied between 2% and 4%.
And software pivotals rose ahead of Infosys' Q3 results on Tuesday. TCS closed higher by 1.9% at Rs 714 and Infosys ended up 0.9% at Rs 2488. Wipro, however, ended lower by 1% at Rs 662.
On the other hand, the energy sector faced the brunt of Reliance's weakness. The index bellwether was the top Sensex loser, shedding 1.8% at Rs 1081, after raising about Rs 3,465 crore through the sale of 3.3 crore treasury stocks within days of raising the offer for bankrupt chemical maker LyondellBasell Industries to $13.5 billion.
