Markets end flat; Sensex down 18.52 pts

Indian markets traded in a lacklustre manner today. The Sensex ended on a flat note with negative bias led by realty, oil & gas and capital goods stocks, while consumer durables, healthcare and IT buck the trend. The index opened with a loss of 0.52 points, at 16,912.25 on Thursday tracking positive Asian shares and witnessed volatility during the day to finally close on a quiet note after touching a high of 16,979.52 and low of 16,826.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap index rose 1.09% and 0.88% respectively.

European stocks fell for the first time in six days as the Federal Reserve signaled it will remove most emergency measures and Standard & Poor`s cut its rating for Greece. Asian shares and U.S. futures dropped. UK`s benchmark index FTSE 100 declined 37.52 points, or 0.71%, to trade at 5,282.68. French benchmark index CAC 40 decreased 27.37 points or 0.71% to trade at 3,848.40. Germany`s benchmark index DAX dropped 33.11 points or 0.57% to trade at 5,870.75. (4.15 pm)

Asian markets ended lower Thursday, with worries about a surge in supply of new shares and their impact on liquidity dragging Shanghai and Hong Kong lower. Japanese benchmark index Nikkei 225 dropped 13.61 points, or 0.13%, to end at 10,163.80. Hong Kong`s Hang Seng fell 264.11 points, or 1.22%, to end at 21,347.63. China`s Shanghai Composite decreased 76.14 points, or 2.34% to end at 3,179.08.

The Sensex ended the day with a loss of 18.52 points, or 0.11% at 16,894.25 after touching a high of 16,979.52 and a low of 16,826.00. The broad-based NSE Nifty fell 0.30 points, or 0.01% at 5,041.75 after hitting a high of 5,064.20 and a low of 5,013.15.

Major gainers in the 30-share index were Hindustan Unilever (1.63%), Hindalco Industries (1.40%), Tata Consultancy Services (1.29%), Tata Steel (1.16%), Mahindra & Mahindra (0.96%), and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (0.91%).

On the other hand, DLF plunged (3.70%), Larsen & Toubro (1.33%), Reliance Industries (1.23%), Maruti Suzuki India (1.16%), and HDFC Bank (1.16%) were the major losers in the Sensex.

Overall market breadth was positive. Out of the total 2,885 stocks traded at BSE, 1,632 advanced, 1,168 declined while 85 remained unchanged.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE Consumer Durables which gained 1.72%, HC climbed 1.44%, IT gained 0.87%, TECk rose 0.66% and Metal rose 0.35%, while BSE Realty declined 1.11%, Oil & Gas declined 0.59%, Capital Goods fell 0.31% and FMCG fell 0.02%.

Meanwhile, the BSE and NSE postponed the implementation of new trade timings to Jan. 4, 2010 from Dec. 18, 2009.

Reacting to the postponement, Ashok Jainani, VP - Research & Market Strategy, Khandwala Securities said, ``It is difficult to be happy with such insensitive move by the authorities and it can not be pre-judged what benefits the move would bring to the market and the country for the action to be justified.``

``The move would definitely bring stress on manpower situation besides increasing other overhead costs,`` he added.

``Hope the status-quo is restored and enough time is given to people to make adjustments/arrangements for the new timing schedule, `` he concluded.