Market ends flat after volatile trade

The stock markets ended flat on Thursday after a highly volatile trade ahead of an extended weekend even though the International Monetary Fund (IMF) raised the world growth forecast. Bharti Airtel also failed to hold on to its intial sharp gains after the company called off the deal with MTN.

A rising inflation rate dampened sentiment. Inflation rose to 0.83 per cent for the week ended September 19 from 0.37 per cent in the preceeding week.

The Sensex closed flat at 17,134.55, up 7.71 points, or 0.05 per cent. The Nifty settled almost unchanged at 5,083.40, down 0.01 per cent.

The market breadth on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) was marginally negative. Out of 2,868 stocks traded, 1,663 declined while 1,123 advanced. The rest were unchanged.

The Sensex ended the holiday-shortened week with a smart gain of 441.55 points (2.60 per cent), while Nifty moved up 124.45 points (2.50 per cent) during the period.

“I don’t see much of a downslide, at least for the next week. The market may be volatile towards the end of the week but trade within 4,980-5,150 levels”, said Monal Desai, vice-president and head, Inst Equities (Derivatives), Prabhudas Lilladher.

Telecom major Bharti Airtel soared 11.5 per cent in early trade to a high of Rs 467 after the company called off the deal with MTN. However, the stock pared most of its gains and finally settled 4 per cent higher at Rs 435.35. The counter clocked a hefty volume of 68.50 million shares on the BSE as against its two-week daily average traded volume of 10.10 million shares.

Rolta India, Aditya Birla Nuvo, Ultratech Cement and Infrastructure Development Finance Company added 5-7 per cent.

However, Maruti Suzuki slipped despite reporting a 17.3 per cent rise in September sales. The stock dropped 2.82 per cent, followed by HDFC (2.80 per cent) and Tata Power (2.18 per cent). Dr Reddy’s dropped 3.63 per cent following a recall of four of its drugs from the US.

This week, ICICI Bank soared 10.24 per cent, taking its share price to Rs 838.60. IT stocks, TCS, Wipro and Infosys gained 7.65 per cent, 7.02 per cent and 3.58 per cent, respectively.

Other top gainers include Sun Pharma (6.57 per cent), Reliance Communications (5.46 per cent), Mahindra & Mahindra (4.92 per cent) and BHEL (4.65 per cent).

On the other hand, Grasim tumbled 4.71 per cent this week to end at Rs 2,700.80. Tata Motors shed 2.15 per cent in this week. “Numbers will be better in the festive season. Money flow is strong and a lot of new IPOs and QIPs are expected. However, a shift to low beta stocks can be expected,” said Desai.