Mumbai, Dec 13 (IANS): The markets remained flattish for the past five trading days despite continued rally in the US.

"The markers are struggling to break the 21,000-mark on the Nifty and we are seeing some consolidation," said Jaykrishna Gandhi, Head of Business Development, Institutional Equities, at Emkay Global Financial Services.

The broader market has seen some rotation with out of favour banks finding some interest and continued selling in the IT space. Oil prices, on the other hand, have corrected sharply and now are around the $70/barrel mark on the back of demand fears and lack of Saudi production cuts.

The CPI numbers, both in India and the US, were on line with the expectations as India saw a surge in CPI driven by higher food prices and the US eased as over economic growth slowed, he said.

“Overall, we believe the broader markets continue to remain strong as seen by the $2.5 billion MTD buying by the FII on the back of another $2.3 billion in November. The state elections gave a big boost to the market going into the general elections. Near term, as we head into the year-end, we should expect some consolidation around the current levels," he said.

Wednesday marked the fourth day of consolidation in the market. Nifty seems to be taking a bit of a timeout after the recent state elections results, said Sheersham Gupta, Director and Senior Technical Analyst at Rupeez.

“We expect more of the same on Thursday due to Nifty Options Expiry. The real action might kick in on Friday, but things could slow down as the holiday season approaches and FIIs take a break," he said.

On the technical side of things, Nifty is facing resistance around the 21,000-level. Nifty needs to breach this level for the market to move upwards, he said.