Markets end flat; bank, O&G stocks down

Mumbai: The equity markets opened green on Thursday trade but closed flat with negative bias. The investors went brisk on profit booking following fall in financials also oil and energy stocks fell as the government increased excise duty on petrol and diesel.

The 30-share Sensex ended at 27,941, down 68 points and 50-share Nifty closed at 8,358, down 25 points. Banking, oil & gas and real estate stocks lost the most, while technology and pharma stocks were major gainers.

While broader markets ended marginally lower with mid and smallcap indices moved up 0.2 to 0.3 per cent. Also market breadth in BSE also weak with 1,714 shares declining and 1,333 shares advancing.

Infosys, Dr Reddy's, Bharti Airtel, Wipro and Bajaj Auto were top gainers and Tata Power, Sesa Sterlite, ONGC and GAIL were among the losers. From bank counters, ICICI Bank, SBI, Bank of Baroda, Axis Bank, Bank of India, PNB and Canara Bank were down between 1 and 3 per cent.

With the UP government decided not to increase sugarcane prices, the private sugar mills ended higher which include: Bajaj Hindustan, Balrampur Chini, Shree Renuka, Dhampur Sugar and Oudh Sugar gained between 3 to 17 per cent.

Midsession better
Nifty traded in a zigzag manner with negative bias and closed with a loss of about 0.30%. Nifty has been moving in a narrow range of 8300 and 8420 for the last seven trading sessions and a clear breakout / breakdown that appears imminent in a day or two. If it closes above 8400, the index could go up to 8500 / 8550, however, short term trend continues to remain positive and stop loss may be continued at 8300 (on close basis). Nifty spot is expected to encounter resistance at 8400, 8435 and find support at 8320, 8285 for Friday. The global cues and funds flow guide the market and it may be expected the market can perform better in midsession. – Dr B Amaranatha Sastry