Market ends flat as GDP weighs

The Indian markets closed a volatile session on a flat note with a positive bias. The Sensex up 22 points and the Nifty up 10 points.
Headlines for the day
India’s GDP at 6.1% in Q3 vs 6.9% in Q2
ONGC soars as govt approves stake sale
Rico Auto hits upper circuit on stake-sale in JV
Orbit Corp surges on plans to buy Mazda Construction
PSU shares surge as govt clears ONGC stake sale



Indian indices

The Indian markets failed to hold its gains as profit booking emerged after weak GDP data. Losses in capital goods, FMCG and banking stocks were putting pressure while oil & gas, PSU, metal, realty and consumer durables stocks helped markets. HDFC Bank, L&T, ITC, Jindal Steel, Hero MotoCorp, Maruti and HDFC were the negative contributors to the Sensex. The markets closed flat with a positive bias.
Sensex movement: The Sensex opened the session at 17920, up by 189 points on strong global cues and immediately touched the day’s high at 18001. The index remained strong in the morning trade. However, after the release of GDP data the index began to trim gains and turned negative to hit the day’s low at 17678 in the afternoon session. The Sensex closed 22 points higher at 17753 and the Nifty rose 10 points to close at 5385.
Market sentiment
The market breadth stood in favour of advances. Of the 3025 stocks traded on the BSE, 1593 (52.66%) rose, 1295 (42.81%) fell and 137 (4.53%) remained unchanged.
Viewing volumes
An integrated infrastructure development company — Lanco Infratech was traded the most, with over 1.53 crore shares changing hands on the BSE. Following that, Industrial Finance Company – IFCI (0.90 crore shares), a real estate development company - HDIL (0.75 crore shares), Wind turbine major – Suzlon Energy (0.71 crore shares) and major Indian telecommunication company - Reliance Communications (0.52 crore shares).
Sectoral & stock screening
Among the 13 sectoral indices, nine stood in green. Top gainers were BSE Oil & Gas surged by 2.53%, BSE PSU gained by 1.51% and BSE Metal up by 1.45%. Losers were BSE CG dipped by 1.59%, BSE FMCG slipped by 0.72% and BSE Bankex fell by 0.59%.
Among 'A' group stocks, top three gainers were Bajaj FinServ jumped by 11%, Pantaloon Retail gained 8.70% and Hindustan Copper advanced by 8.56%. Top three losers were Gitanjali Gems dipped by 4.51%, United Spirits fell by 3.39% and Shriram Transport Finance Company dropped by 3.14%.
Global Indices:
The European shares rose on Wednesday (February 29, 2012), as investors bet that a second wad of cheap, long-term funds from the European Central Bank would further ease tension in the banking sector and boost confidence in the wider market.
The Asian markets closed positive on Wednesday on optimism ahead of another ECB refinancing operation.
The US stock index futures pointed to a firmer open on the Wall Street on Wednesday.
Market Outlook: Data releases in the US on Wednesday — GDP, Chicago PMI, EIA Petroleum Status Report and Beige Book.