Markets end flat; realty, OMCs, RIL, Bharti up, banking dips
18 Feb 2009
It was a lacklustre session of trade for the benchmark indices. Some amount of short covering was seen, after two days of big fall. Indian equities, therefore, did not see any big fall like seen by global markets.
Realty, OMCs, select power, cement, auto stocks as well as Reliance Industries, Bharti, Infosys and SAIL supported the markets. However, banking stocks remained under pressure throughout the day, followed by ONGC, TCS, Reliance Infrastructure, L&T and M&M.
The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 9,015.18 points, down 19.82 points or 0.22%, after swinging 191.61 points between an intraday high of 9,113.92 and low of 8,922.31. However, the 50-share NSE Nifty swung nearly 70 points between a high of 2806.50 and low of 2736.65, before closing at 2776.15, up 0.20% or 5.65 points.
Volumes were higher than previous day; total turnover stood at Rs 51,710.74 crore. This includes Rs 7,738.26 crore from NSE cash segment, Rs 41,094.83 crore from NSE F&O and the balance Rs 2,877.65 crore from BSE cash segment.
Market breadth was weak due to downtrend in broader indices; about 1175 shares advanced while 1658 shares declined. Nearly 191 shares remained unchanged.
Overall, global cues were mixed. European markets were trading lower; FTSE went down 59 points, to 3,974. CAC was trading at 2,844, down 31 points and DAX was at 4,159, down 57 points.
US futures were almost flat; Dow Jones Futures was up 3 points, to 7,510 while Nasdaq Futures down 1.5 points, to 1,181.
Asian markets ended mixed. Shanghai plunged 4.72%. Nikkei and Kospi lost 1.24-1.45%. However, Hang Seng gained 0.55% and Straits Times up 0.8%. Taiwan was up 0.15%.