The BSE Sensex ended the day lower by 45 points, while the Nifty ended the day lower by 4.75 points at 5253 points. Among the top losers from amongst the index stocks were Tata Power, Siemens and IDFC. GAIL fell despite reports that company is signing an LNG supply pact with Spain's gas natural Fenosa Spain company to supply LNG.

Investors continued to buy shares of defensives like pharma, which saw shares of Cipla and Ranbaxy Laboratories both gaining 2% each. Other defensive sectors like FMCG continued to hold steady with Hindustan Unilever and ITC ending the day virtually unchanged. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries traded in a narrow range for most of the day, before ending flat.

Among non index stocks TVS Motors lost almost 7%, following poor sales figures for the month of August 2012.

In Europe shares opened lower, but rallied later and were trading in the positive. The German DAX, the French CAC and the FTSE were all marginally higher in trade today. Asian stocks ended the day mostly higher, except for Singapore's Straits Times and the Japanese Nikkei which ended the day with losses.

Markets are expected to trade flat and eye the European Central Bank meet scheduled for Thursday. Any strong signal of easing measures is likely to provide a fresh impetus to global and local markets.

GoodReturns.in