Sensex, Nifty end flat…SBI surges on results

After falling for two straight trading sessions, the Indian market stabilised a little bit but not before going through a topsy-turvy ride. The benchmark stock indices finished off days low, thanks to better than expected quarterly earnings by banking major and index heavyweight SBI. Other banking shares also perked up following SBI's stellar numbers.



"The markets managed to recover lost ground despite disappointing IIP data. India's industrial output grew by 7.1% in June as against May's revised growth of 11.3%. Consensus estimates ranged between 8-8.5%", says Amar Ambani, Vice President, Research IIFL.

The BSE Sensex finally ended flat at 18,074 after hitting an intra-day high of 18,133 and an intra-day low of 17,914. The NSE Nifty closed flat at 5,416 after touching a high of 5,431 and a low of 5,372.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, the IT index was the top loser, falling by 1%, followed by Metal index, which lost 0.8%. The BSE Teck index slipped 0.7%.

On the other hand, BSE Banking index gained 1.7% and the BSE Auto index added 1.1%. The Mid-Cap index added 0.3% and the Small-cap index ended flat.

Outside the frontline indices, the big losers in the broader market were MMTC, Mphasis, APIL, Aban and Petronet LNG.

On the other hand, gainers included Bank of India, UCO Bank, Biocon and REC.

In global market action, the Nikkei in Tokyo pared earlier losses fueled by exporter shares, finishing down 0.9% as the yen rebounded on hopes that the government may act to stop the currency's recent rally.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 dropped 1.2% in the wake of poor earnings reports. China's Shanghai Composite Index dropped 1.2%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 0.9% and Taiwan's Taiex gave up 0.8%.

European shares fluctuated between gains and losses, as investors remained cautious a day after concerns about the global economy sparked a workd-wide selling in risky assets.

This week's drubbing of equities has come in the wake of this week's downbeat assessment of the US economy by the Federal Reserve, data confirming a slowdown in China and a downgrade of the UK's GDP growth.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index traded up 0.2% at 255.24. It had closed with a 2% loss on Wednesday, its biggest one-day decline in almost six weeks, which wiped out progress made in August.

US stock futures fell, extending losses after the previous session's rout, as a disappointing revenue outlook from Cisco Systems weighed on the technology sector.

Nasdaq 100 futures fell 7.50 points to 1,830.20 and S&P 500 futures dropped 3.40 points to 1,081.60. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 25 points to 10,312.