Markets have a flat closing

It was a flat end to a rather volatile session of trade.

The Sensex swung in a range of nearly 200 points before ending virtually unchanged at 20104, lower by 12 points and the Nifty ended at 6029, down six points.

The midcap index ended at 8162, higher by 20 points and smallcap index ended at 10286, up five points.

The markets had a sideways start, what with the Wall Street having a subdued session and the markets closer home having a mixed look to them.

Volatility set in during the course of the day on the back of creeping weakness in the Asian and European markets and rollover of positions ahead of the derivatives expiry scheduled on Thursday.

The Hang Seng and Nikkei shed around a percent each at close, while the Straits Times, Seoul and Taiwan Weighted indices lost upto half a percent each. And FTSE and DAX were down in the region of a percent each in mid-day trades.

A bout of short-covering at close was what resurrected the markets from the morass of the afternoon.