Stoke only had two shots on target at the Britannia Stadium and neither of those stretched David Marshall in the Cardiff goal.
Manager Hughes recalled Marko Arnautovic to his starting line-up but the Austrian was unable to provide that creative spark and the hosts recorded a second consecutive blank in front of goal.
While the 50-year-old was happy with the overall performance, he was left to rue a missed opportunity to open up a bigger gap to the bottom three.
"I thought we did well up to a point - at the top end, which is a problem for us," he said. "But in terms of controlling the game I thought we did well we were the only team likely to win the game.
"In terms of performance I thought we stuck at it without creating too many clear-cut chances.
"We're disappointed not to win the game, I thought our performance merited that. I don't recall too many chances for them but I thought we stuck at it.
"We have got to keep our home form nice and solid, we have been decent enough but we need to take maximum points."
The draw leaves Stoke 14th in the Premier League on 14 points, four clear of Fulham in the bottom three.
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