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After a tepid start, Nifty made a gradual recovery during the day as buying emerged at lower levels in index heavyweights, Siddhartha Khemka, Head - Retail Research, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, has said.

Domestic equities had weak handover from its global peers as high US inflation and mounting trouble in China's real estate market dented the sentiments. Even on the domestic front, IIP data came at 3 months low.

The index closed with minuscule gains of 6 points at 19,435 levels. Except for IT, FMCG, and Media, all sectors ended in red, he said.

Caution was seen in the market today on account of fragile global factors and ahead of India's CPI data that would be released later on Monday.

"We believe inflation is likely to pick up in July-August 23 – entirely led by vegetables. We expect the headline inflation at 7.5 per cent YoY in July 23, which is well above the RBI's tolerance band. Even WPI inflation came in a little higher than expectation. Persistent selling by FIIs since July end too is keeping the Indian equities on edge. Thus the market is witnessing consolidation at higher levels in the absence of any positive trigger," he said.

"We expect this trend to continue in the near term as a series of macro data around the world and FOMC meeting minutes will be released during the week which could keep markets subdued. Indian equities will remain closed on Tuesday on the occasion of Independence Day and might stay lackluster on Wednesday on account of the Parsi New Year," he said.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services said following weak performances in Asian markets, the domestic indices commenced the day with a negative bias, prompted by discouraging domestic industrial data along with concerns over demand from China. However, the indices managed to recover from their initial losses, ending the day on a relatively neutral note.

India's wholesale inflation persisted in negative territory, albeit moderating to -1.36 per cent, as the decline in fuel prices was counterbalanced by higher food costs. 

India's CPI inflation, due to be released on Monday, is anticipated to exceed the RBI's tolerance level of 6 per cent due to mounting pressure from elevated food prices, he said.