The centre of market activity was L&T which topped the turnover on the BSE. With a volume of Rs 185 crore, the scrip accounted for nearly 11 per cent of the total business on BSE.

FIIs were reported to be huge buyers in Indian commodity, economy related and cyclical stocks ACC, L&T, Telco, Grasim, Hindalco, Mahindra and Mahindra. The domestic institutions are reported to have booked profits and pressed sales in MTNL and some power scrips.

Reflecting a steady trend, the BSE-30 Sensex opened at 4,332.84 touched the day's high of 4,355.67 andlow of 4,309.57 and closed at 4,326.41 with a marginal gain of 4.90 points from the previous close of 4,321.51 points.

On the NSE also equities moved in a narrow range with the S&P CNX Nifty opened at 1243.90 touched the day's high of 1,251.15 points, fell to touch a day's low of 1,238.40 points, before closing at 1,244.05 netting a small gain of 0.35 points from the previous close of 1243.70 points.

On the NSE, according to dealers, the software counters witnessed decline while pharma and FMCG reported a mixed trend. Shares of cement and aluminium companies gained considerable ground on good buying support.

Petro-chem giant Reliance Industries' quarterly results failed to boost its share price on the BSE. The RIL scrip closed lower by Rs 4.15 at Rs 180.60 on the BSE from the previous close of Rs 184.75. About 79,99,000 shares changed hands at the BSE. The volume at the NSE was much higher in RIL than the BSE where about 1,21,89,000 shares changed hands.

On the BSE, also the software shares were seensidelined while hectic activity was witnessed at the counters like Telco, Apollo Tyres, Siemens, L&T and Hindalco. According to VP Shailesh Merchant & Brokers Chetan Shah: "The market will again start looking at the software counters as the commodity stocks have risen almost by 60-100 per cent since the rally".

Pharma, FMCG counters witnessed a mixed trend. Institutionalised deals were reported at the counters led by Bharat Electronic, Hero Honda, ICICI, Mico, Satyam Computer and TVS Suzuki.

Operators are rumoured to be booking profits in high priced stocks like ITC, Satyam Computer, Pentafour Software and some other shares where they were long following reports that the militant groups had refused to withdraw from the Drass-Kargil sectors on the Indian side of LOC and vowed to ignore appeals from the Nawaz Sharif government for a pullout. "The markets will keep on facing resistance at the 4,300 level as the Kargil clouds are still looming large on the markets. This is because the change in the Kargilsituation is not the final verdict and because the Pakistani conditions still forbear a threatening conflict", said Dilip Bhat, a BSE broker.