Markets end flat amid highly volatile session

The Indian markets witnessed an extremely volatile trade and shut the session on a flat note with a negative bias, with realty, IT among major losers.

Major headlines

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Bharati Shipyard slips on order cancellation report



Indian indices

It was an extremely volatile trade for the markets today. The key benchmark indices fluctuated between gains and losses all throughout the day with no clues as to what the closing will be. A sudden bout of selling in realty, IT stocks and heavyweights like Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Technologies led to a sharp decline in late trade. But the markets soon recovered and ended on a flat note with a negative bias.

The Sensex was pretty good at start, up by 56 points at 19280. In initial trade itself, the Sensex hit the day’s high of 19432 and turned volatile. The index fluctuated between gains and losses all throughout the day. High volatility was witnessed as the session progressed. A sudden sell-off in realty and IT stocks in late trade led the Sensex to decline sharply, hitting the day’s low of 19004. However, the Sensex recovered to close flat.

The Sensex shut shop at 19196, down by 28 points and the Nifty fell by 9 points to close at 5754.

Market sentiment

The market breadth was negative as trailing shares outpaced the gaining ones. Of the 3,011 stocks traded on the BSE, 1,763 declined while 1,102 advanced. Hundred and forty-six stocks traded unchanged.

Viewing volumes

India's second largest developer - Unitech was the most traded stock, with over 0.64 crore shares changing hands on the BSE, followed by wind turbine major - Suzlon Energy (0.53 crore shares), industrial finance company - IFCI (0.46 crore shares), sugar major - Shree Renuka Sugars (0.33 crore shares) and Asia's second-largest cigarette maker - ITC (0.32 crore shares).

Sectoral & stock screening

Among the 13 sectoral indices, seven ended in the red, while the rest six in the green. BSE Realty was the major loser, down by 2.74% on worries higher interest rates and property prices could dent demand for residential and commercial properties. BSE Information Technology (IT) was the second loser, down by 1.60% due to profit taking ahead of sector bellwether Infosys Technologies' Q3 December 2010 earnings on Thursday (January 13, 2011). On the other hand, BSE Bankex was the biggest gainer, up by 1.24%, while BSE PSU and BSE Auto gained by 0.49% and 0.37% respectively.

In 'A' group stocks, the top three gainers were - Indusind Bank up by 4.50%, Yes Bank rose by 4.02% and Adani Enterprises jumped by 3.50%. Top three losers were - Unitech slid by 6.49%, GMR Infrastructure dropped by 6.31% and Housing Development & Infrastructure (HDIL) fell by 4.99%.

Global signals

The European markets rose, snapping a three-day losing streak, as forecast-beating results from US aluminium major Alcoa sparked hopes for the upcoming European earnings season.

The Asian markets ended mixed. Hang Seng gained by 0.99% while Jakarta Composite was down by 0.67%.

The US stock index futures point to a higher opening on the Wall Street after Alcoa, the largest US aluminum producer, kicked off the earnings season by beating forecasts.

Market outlook: There is no major data announcement in the US tonight.