Market ends flat amid volatility

The market recovered from its lower levels to end flat in the end trade amid volatility. The market breadth was negative. The mid- cap and small-cap indices declined further. Banking ,metal and realty stocks ended with losses. IT stocks slipped further on rupee concerns. Asian markets ended mixed, while European markets were trading up. Reliance Industries extended gains.

After galloping in mid-afternoon trade, propelling the Sensex to its all-time high, the market had slipped in the red during end trade to hit an intra-day low. Reliance Industries extended gains.

After opening on a positive tone, the market had remained range bound. In mid-afternoon trade, the market surfed in the positive and negative zones. Extending gains, it had hit a new intra-day high in mid-morning trade.

The BSE 30-share Sensex ended down 3.78 points, or 0.02%, to 17,773.36. It had opened with a gap of 54.54 points at 17,779.22 . The Sensex touched an all-time high of 17979.18 in midafernoon trade and a low of 17,708.80 in end trade.

The S&P CNX Nifty closed down 22.8 points, or 0.44%, to 5,185.85. It had hit a high of 5,248.55 in mid afternoon trade, and a low of 5,164.50 in end trade.

Of the 30 shares of the Sensex, seven had moved up, while the remaining were trading down. The market breadth was weak on BSE: 900 scrips had advanced, 1,834 declined, while 348 remained unchanged.

The BSE Mid-Cap index was down 90.76 points, or 1.2%, to 7,485.51 underperforming the Sensex,. The BSE Small-Cap index was down 40.05 points, or 0.44%, to 9,101.87, underperforming the Sensex.

Sectoral indices on BSE displayed mixed trend. The BSE Realty index (down 1.73% to 9,631.36) and the BSE IT Index (down 0.62% at 4,740.27) underperformed the Sensex.

The BSE TecK index (up 0.34% to 3,900.88), the BSE Oil and Gas Index (up 1.09% at 10,190.88), and the BSE Capital Goods Index (up 3.21% at 15,742.79) outperformed the Sensex.

Nifty F&O 25 October contract traded at 5,172, a discount of 13.85 points, or 0.26%, to the spot price of 5,185.85.

The NSE F&O segment clocked a turnover of Rs 64,188.48 crore today, 5 October 2007.

India's wholesale price index (WPI) rose 3.42 % in the 12 months to 22 September 2007, higher than the previous week's 3.23 %, due to a rise in manufactured product prices, data released today, 5 October 2007, showed. Banking stocks declined as WPI was more than expected. SBI (down 2.31% to Rs 1,863.25), ICICI Bank (down 2.31% to Rs 1,036.80) and HDFC Bank (down 1.59% to Rs 1,400.45) edged lower. HDFC shed 1.59% to Rs 2,455.05.

Reliance Communications (up 1.62% to Rs 644.75) and Bharti Airtel (up 3.32% to Rs 993.05) were among the major gainers in the Sensex pack.

NTPC (down 5.28% to Rs 214.45 and the top loser from the Sensex pack), Hindalco Industries (down 3.7% to Rs 169.20), Tata Steel (down 3.68% to Rs 832.90) and ITC (down 3.27% to Rs 178.75) and ACC (down 3.11% to Rs 1,176.60) were the major losers from the Sensex pack.

IT bigwigs declined as the rupee gained further. Infosys (down 0.27% to Rs 1,989.65), TCS (down 0.78% to Rs 1,070.20), Wipro (down 0.03% to Rs 461.15) and Satyam Computer Services (down 1.33% to Rs 444.45) were weak.

The BSE Capital Goods index was the major gainer from the sectoral indices. L&T (up 6.66% to Rs 3,089.25, hit an all-time high of Rs 3,197.50 today and was the top gainer from the Sensex pack) and Bhel (up 2.96% to Rs 2,153.55 , hit an all-time high of Rs 2,229 today) and Suzlon Energy (up 0.75% to Rs 1,651.55) edged higher.

The largest private sector company and oil refiner Reliance Industries rose 2.53% to Rs 2,483.90. It touched an all-time high of Rs 2,539 today on reports it may join state-run firms to set up a Rs 6000-crore petrochemicals complex in Visakapatnam.

Power transmission firm Power Grid Corporation of India ended at Rs 100.65 on BSE on its debut, a premium of 93.56% over the IPO price of Rs 52.

Hexaware Technologies was down 0.16% to Rs 121.10 on BSE after securing a large order from a leading German financial institution to upgrade its technology.

DLF was declined 1.24% to Rs 851.70 on reports that it is in talks with private equity firms and investment banks to raise Rs 2000 crore.

Exide Industries moved up 0.45% to Rs 66.80 after it said it would enter the lead smelting and recycling business to reduce dependence on import of lead.

Lanco Infratech declined 3.42% to Rs 417.85 on BSE even after bagging a Rs 7.30-crore order from Tirupati Tirumala Devasthanams, Tirupati, for constructing a university.

Bayer CropScience surged 2.79% to Rs 300.55 on reports that parent Bayer is keen to acquire full control of the company.

i-flex Solutions closed down 0.96% to Rs 1,895.40 on BSE after increasing its stake to 100% in Castek Software.

Parsvnath Developers traded up 0.90% to Rs 375 at 14:03 IST on reports that global financial investors Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley may invest in the company’s special economic zones projects.

Hind Rectifiers had spurted 5.16% to Rs 184 at 15:36 IST on BSE after it signed a technical collaboration agreement with Infineon Technologies AG, Germany, for manufacturing a prime stack.

Refex Refrigerants had jumped 3.65% to Rs 177.20 on receiving a special import licence for importing 2,000 tonnes of hydrochlorofluorocarbon-based refrigerants from the Indian government.

Petron Engineering Construction had climbed up 3.78% to Rs 284, after it received a Rs 1.33-crore order from Vedanta Alumina for installation of anode, grouping and cleaning system for its aluminium smelter project.

Among the side counters, Phoenix International (up 19.83% to Rs 20.85) Tata Sponge Iron (up 19.23% to Rs 233.45), Shree Ram Mills (up 19.44% to Rs 427.10), and OCL India (up 19.71% to Rs 191.95) had advanced and were the major gainers.

Solectrun Centum (down 21.04% to Rs 220.10) and Ras Resorts (down 14.45% to Rs 37) and Almondz Capital (down 12.02% to Rs 35.15) were the major losers.

Asian markets, which opened before the Indian markets, were mixed today. Taiwan's Taiwan Weighted (down 0.11% to 9,617.26) and Japan's Nikkei (down 0.16% at 17,065.04) were in red. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng (up 3.18% to 27,831.52) and Singapore's Straits Times (up 1.03% to 3,822.62) were in positive territory.

Most of the European markets were trading in green. These included France’s CAC (up 0.04% to 5,806.66), Germany’s DAX (up 0.38% to 7,975.76) and UK’s FTSE 100 (up 0.23% to 6,562.80).

The market snapped its 10-day winning streak on 4 October 2007 as the Sensex ended down 69.90 points, or 0.39%, to 17,777.14 points. The S&P CNX Nifty closed lower 2.15 points, or 0.04%, to 5,208.65. It had touched a low of 5,126.05 in mid-afternoon trade.

Till then, the market had been on a roll, with the Sensex hitting a record high in the trading sessions from 19 September 2007 to 3 October 2007. Heavy FII buying and hopes of a further cut in interest rates by the US Federal Reserve at its next policy meeting on 30-31 October 2007 had boosted the bourses.

From a low of 13,989.11 on 21 August 2007, the Sensex has galloped a whopping 3,857.93 points, or 27.57%, to 17,847.04 on Wednesday, 3 October 2007.