Sensex, Nifty end flat...Hero Honda, Ispat zooms

It was a dull start to the Christmas week, with the benchmark stock indices finishing nearly flat even as some of the Small-Cap stocks held their own. The BSE Auto index zoomed as Hero Honda surged on more clarity from the management on the termination of JV with Honda. IT shares continued their recent good run while Banking and Realty were at the receiving end.



The indices started the session at intra-day lows; from there on, they saw gradual recovery throughout the day before losing some steam in late afternoon trade.

Hero Honda was the star performer of the day, with the stock shooting up over 15% in a single trading session as the management continued to provide assurance to the investors about the proposed break up with Honda.

"The morning was nervous as Asian markets fell amid reports of fresh tension between the South Korea and North Korea. But, markets in the region recovered after North Korea said it was ready to allow inspection of its nuclear facilities. A lot of stock specific action was seen even as the overall market trend was rather subdued," says Amar Ambani, Head of Research (India Private Clients) - IIFL.

The BSE Sensex ended with modest gains, the index gains 24 points to close at 19,889 and the NSE Nifty ended flat at 5,947.

The BSE Small-cap index was up 0.4% and the BSE Mid-cap index ended falt.

Hero Honda, Cipla,Maruti Suzuki, TCS, M&M, Infosys, Wipro, Tata Steel, Jindal Steel, BHEL, IDFC, SAIL and ACC are among the notable gainers in the Sensex and the Nifty.

NTPC, Bharti Airtel, Sterlite Industries, Reliance Infra, SBI, ONGC, RCOM, HDFC Bank, Tata Power, DLF, JP Associate, Axis Bank and Sesa Goa are among the laggards in the Sensex and the Nifty.

The market breadth was neutral positive on the BSE with 1,499 shares rising and 1,317 shares falling.

Outside the two main indices, the key losers were SKS Microfinance, KGN Inds, Shree Ashtavina, United Phos, Balkrishna Inds, Dr Reddys Lab, Kwality Dairy, Adhunik Metal, KS Oils, Patel Engr, Max India and Glenmark Pharma

Ispat Inds, Arshiya Intl, Prestige Estates, United Brew, EIH, Amtek Auto, Marg, Koutons Retl and Karuturi Global were among the notable gainers in the broader market.