Indian mkts least hit by Pak tragedy; end flat

Mumbai: The markets ended flat on Friday amid a highly volatile session. The cues from Asian peers and other equity markets were not very encouraging. The news from across the border of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination has been very disturbing for the markets.

The Indian markets were however resilient and outperformed rest of the Asia closing flat. Midcap and small cap stocks continued their upmove. FMCG, metal and realty stocks also witnessed buying interest. Profit booking has seen in select auto technology stocks. The breadth was strong in the favour of advances.

Wipro, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Auto and TCS were top losers on the bourses while DLF, Ambuja Cements, Tata Steel, Unitech, PNG and Nalco among top losers.

Reliance Energy, Transformers & Rectifiers, RNRL and Reliance Industries were most active shares. On a weekly basis, both the Sensex and Nifty are up 5.5 per cent each.

Sensex closed down 9.77 points or 0.05 per cent at 20206.95, and the Nifty down 1.80 points or 0.03 per cent at 6079.70. About 2376 shares have advanced, 683 shares declined, and 45 shares are unchanged.

The BSE Midcap Index ended at 9,574.57 up 1.6 per cent. The BSE Smallcap Index ended at 12,901.29 up 2 per cent. The BSE Bankex was up 0.2 per cent at 11,386.35. Bank of Baroda, Federal Bank, Kotak Mahindra, Canara Bank, Oriental Bank closed in red.

The BSE Capital Goods Index closed flat at 19,645.23. Alfa Laval, Bharat Elec, SKF India, Lakshmi Machine, Crompton Greave closed higher. The BSE Auto Index closed at 5,595.00 down 0.2 per cent. Exide Industrie, Hind Motors, Tata Motors, Escorts, Ashok Leyland closed lower.

The BSE Metal Index closed at 19,948.45 up 2.5 per cent. Jindal Steel, Hind Zinc, Sesa Goa, NALCO, Mah Seamless closed higher. The BSE FMCG Index closed up 1 per cent at 2,280.60. Nestle, Bata India, Tata Tea, GlaxoSmith Con, ITC ended higher.

BSE Oil and Gas Index closed at 13,202.26 up 1 per cent. Reliance Natura, Essar Oil, IOC, HPCL, Petronet LNG ended higher. The BSE IT Index was at 4,552.06 down 0.4 per cent. I-Flex Solution, Financial Tech, Satyam, Tech Mahindra, Infosys closed lower.

The NSE cash turnover was at Rs 17278.48 crore and the NSE F&O turnover was at Rs 50436.85 crore. The BSE cash turnover was Rs 8710.65 crore. Total market wide turnover was at Rs 76425.98 crore.

The markets showed smart recovery after a small dip around midday. Midcap and small-cap stocks continued their upmove and FMCG, metal and realty stocks also witnessing buying interest. The breadth is extremely strong in the favour of advances.

Metal sector is the star performer; Nalco up 5 per cent, Tata Steel and SAIl wereup 2.5 per cent. At 15.00 hrs IST, the Sensex was down 24.24 points or 0.12 per cent at 20192.48, and the Nifty up 4.25 points or 0.07 per cent at 6085.75.