Markets end on flat note in highly choppy trade

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Mumbai, January 11

In a highly volatile trade, equity benchmarks Sensex and Nifty ended on a flat note on Wednesday amid unabated foreign fund outflows and a weak trend in index heavyweight Reliance Industries.

Continuing its previous day's decline, the 30-share BSE Sensex dipped 9.98 points or 0.02 per cent to settle at 60,105.50. During the day, it fell 309.7 points or 0.51 per cent to 59,805.78.

The broader NSE Nifty skidded 18.45 points or 0.10 per cent to end at 17,895.70.

From the Sensex pack, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, Titan, Reliance Industries, Nestle, IndusInd Bank, Bajaj Finserv and NTPC were the major laggards.

Sun Pharma, UltraTech Cement, Tata Motors, Larsen amp; Toubro, Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC Bank and Tata Motors were among the winners.

"The biggest drag on the market in the near-term is the sustained selling by FIIs for 13 continuous sessions, which has taken the cumulative cash market selling to Rs 16,587 crore," said VK Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

In the broader market, the BSE midcap gauge declined 0.27 per cent, while smallcap index ended marginally higher by 0.02 per cent.

Among sectoral indices, FMCG fell 0.98 per cent, utilities declined 0.78 per cent, energy (0.53 per cent), auto (0.46 per cent), consumer durables (0.36 per cent) and consumer discretionary (0.34 per cent).

Financial Services, industrials, IT, bankex, capital goods and metal were the winners.

"After a volatile session, the domestic market anchored near the flat line as investors remained cautious ahead of the release of inflation data, though positive sentiments from global counterparts attempted multiple recoveries in between. The relentless selling by FIIs as a result of the premium valuation of the domestic market is weighing on the domestic market," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Elsewhere in Asia, equity markets in Seoul, Tokyo and Hong Kong ended in the green, while Shanghai settled lower.

Equity exchanges in Europe were trading in the positive territory in mid-session deals. Markets in the US had ended in positive territory on Tuesday.

International oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.65 per cent to USD 80.62 per barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded shares worth Rs 2,109.34 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

The Tribune