Markets end flat in negative zone

After opening on a negative note today, the Indian markets extended some early losses in the afternoon trade but ended the day on a flat negative note.The negative opening of the European markets dampened the sentiments among investors. The Sensex and Nifty closed with losses of  0.27% and 0.18% respectively.

Other Asian markets closed on a negative note. Europe's concerns over the second bailout package has unnerved investors as the officials were looking to delay the plan to follow the elections in April 2012.

European markets today too opened on a negative note today. The delay by the European leaders to bail out Greece affected investors as without the bailout, Greece could face a messy default risk.

Dow Jones Futures is currently trading 97 points or 0.76% down at 12780, indicating a negative sentiment in the US markets.

Back home, among the BSE sectoral indices, Realty, Power and CG have closed with leading gains of 1.53%, 1.37% and 0.65% respectively. In the losers pack, Metals, Oil & Gas and CD are are down by 1.63%, 1.53% and 0.92% respectively.

Among the Sensex shares, Jindal Steel, Hero MotoCorp and SBI are the leading the indices with gains of 4.94%, 4.57% and 4.38% respectively. Bajaj Auto, BHEL, Cipla, Maruti Suzuki and Tata Power are trading with gains between1.8%-4.2%. Coal India remains the top loser and closed down by 5.44%. This was on back of the news that the Indian Prime Minister has asked the company to allocate more coal to power companies at a discounted price, which will hurt their margins going forward.

The market breadth, which indicates the overall health of the market, was positive. Out of the 3374 stocks traded on the BSE, 1836 advanced, 1426 declined and 112 remained unchanged.

In conclusion, we expect the markets to continue to remain negative, as investors are worried on the recovery in the European economy and await some positive news from the US markets.