Choppy Sensex manages slim gains

The Indian market ended on a flat note on Thursday with the key indices managing slim gains at the end of a fairly volatile trading session. After a good start, the Sensex and Nifty suddenly turned sharply lower in mid morning trade and spent most of the day gyrating between gains and losses. Later on the benchmark indices turned choppy and were stuck in a narrow trading band.



"Sentiment in India was partly affected by the recent selloff by the FIIs and partly owing to the ongoing political tension over a few big scams, including the row over 2G spectrum allocation. The selling in India came despite food inflation falling sharply in the latest reporting week and world markets recovering from recent reversals. Banks took a knock as worries mount over the fate of the MFI sector. RCOM and Unitech were under pressure in the wake of the CAG report on 2G spectrum irregularities ," says Amar Ambani, Head of Research (India Private Clients) - IIFL.

The BSE Sensex gained 65 points to close at 19,930 and the NSE Nifty modestly added 10 points to close at 5,999.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, the BSE Banking index was the top loser the index lost 1.5%, followed by BSE Consumer Durables index which slipped 1.3% and the BSE Realty index slipped 0.6%. The broader indices also ended in red, the BSE Mid-Cap index lost by 0.9% and BSE Small-Cap index slipped 0.8%.

On the other hand, BSE Metal index gained 1.7%, BSE Auto index added 1.5% and BSE Pharma index gained 1.2%.

The European indices were trading in green, the DAX in Germany was up 1.2%, the CAC 40 index in France was up 1.5% and FTSE index was trading higher by 1.3%.

Outside the frontline indices, the big gainers in the broader market were IOB, Jet Airways, TVS Motors, Aurobindo Pharma and Marico. On the other hand, losers included DB Realty, Syndicate Bank, Godrej Prop and Shree Cement.