Sensex settles for flat finish...RIL up, Bharti down

After falling for two consecutive trading sessions, the Indian stock indices took a breather on Wednesday, as investors awaited the outcome of the latest FOMC meeting later in the day amid continued trepidation over the proposed Greek referendum on the EU bailout package. Market players also turned cautious before this week's G-2o summit in France and the US jobs data.

Indian markets started off on a negative note in the wake of overnight losses in the US markets and weak trend in Asian markets. Traders and investors continued to be jittery in early trades about the fallout of the proposed Greek referendum on the EU bailout deal and the world economy in general.



However, the markets recovered in intraday trade after a smart comeback in China and Hong Kong. The Nikkei in Japan tumbled more than 2%. Even the European markets rallied in early trade before surrendering some of the initial gains in reaction to a downbeat reading on the eurozone manufacturing PMI.

Finally, the BSE Sensex ended at 17,465, down 16 points. It had earlier touched a day's high of 17,616 and a day's low of 17,337. It opened at 17,347. The NSE Nifty closed almost unchanged at 5,258.

The India VIX shot was up by 3.6% to end at 24.89. It touched a day's high of 24.92 after opening at day's low of 23.57. It had closed at 24.02 on Friday.

Global stocks have tumbled in the last couple of sessions on concerns that the proposed referendum in Greece will derail European efforts to curb the region's debt crisis and might also lead to a possible default by the debt-strapped eurozone nation.

Greek prime minister George Papandreou has stunned everyone by calling for a referendum on the EU bailout deal announced last week. The surprise announcement from Greece has only added to the doubts over the fate of the grand plan to tame the eurozone debt crisis.

"All eyes will be on this week's G-20 meet in France but before that global markets will tune into what Fed chief Ben Bernanke says after a two-day FOMC meeting. Any hint of further monetary easing will perk up the mood while the opposite could happen if Bernanke refrains from committing to another round of quantitative easing," says Amar Ambani.

RCOM shares gained on a media report that Reliance Industries (RIL) could use the telecom assets of the ADAG company to launch its wireless broadband services.

RIL is likely to use the towers and fibre optic cables of RCOM to provide high-speed data services, according to a business daily.

The partnership between the Ambani brothers would not involve any equity investment by RIL in RCOM, the report adds.

The newspaper report says that RIL plans to source most of its infrastructure from RCOM.

Allahabad Bank shares surged after the bank posted a 21% growth in net profit at Rs. 4.88bn for the quarter ended September 30, 2011.

The net interest margin (NIM) improved to 3.68% (3.34%) on account of operational efficiency, its Chairman and Managing Director, J.P. Dua said.

The bank does not have any immediate plan of hiking interest rates on savings bank account, Dua said.

Andhra Bank shares fell as the bank's net profit increased modestly at 4.3% in Q2 FY12 to Rs. 3.16bn.

A 21% jump in net interest income was offset by growth in non-performing assets (NPA) and higher provisioning.

The net interest margin (NIM) slipped to 3.82% from 3.91% in the year-ago period.

PNB shares slid after the state-run bank reported a 29% rise in its provisioning against its liabilities, including bad loans during Q2 FY12.

Hero MotoCorp was down after announcing a moderate 5% increase in its primary sales for October.

HCC shares fell after reports suggested that the Maharashtra Government was likely to initiate a criminal case against Lavasa promoters soon. HCC holds 61% stake in Lavasa.

VIP Industries was down after the company said that Rakesh Jhunjhunwala reduced his stake in the company.

Spicejet and Jet Airways rose amid market talk of a possible 20% hike in air fares.

Escorts shares spurted more than 5% today amid strong trading volume. The stock closed 4.7% higher with volumes surging more than three times the two-week average on the BSE.