Markets end flat ahead of RIL results, global events

Markets ended on a flat note after surging to nearly 2-month high intra-day as investors preferred to stay on the side-lines ahead of weekend events coupled with earnings announcement.

Market participants are awaiting the outcome of Sunday’s Upper House elections in Japan and Group of 20 finance ministers meeting on Friday and Saturday.

The quarterly results of Reliance Industries, country’s biggest oil refiner, later today also weighed on the sentiments.

The 30-share Sensex gained 21.44 points to end at 20,149.85 and the 50-share Nifty declined  8.85 points at 6,029.20 levels.

G-20 meeting will be crucial in terms of any signs on orchestrated approach to the end of US money-printing, which could help defuse volatility in global markets.

Meanwhile, Asian stocks ended on a negative note pared early gains on back of caution ahead of Japanese elections and after profit at Google Inc and Microsoft Corp trailed estimates.

Market participants expect Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to win Sunday's upper house election which will help his government pursue aggressive reflationary policies.

Japan’s Nikkei declined 1.5% to 14,589, Singapore Straits Times declined 0.15% to 3,213, China’s Shanghai Composite index was down 1.5% at 1,992 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng was tad up 0.08% to 21,362 today.

European shares traded lower. France’s CAC declined 0.3% to 3,916, Germany’s DAX dropped 0.37% to 8,306 while UK’s FTSE rose 0.36% to 6,610.

Among the key sectoral indices capital goods, bankex, power, realty indices dropped while IT, autos and oil & gas sectors gained on the BSE.

The gainers included counters such as TCS gaining 5%, Bajaj Auto surged 3.6%, Hero MotoCorp rose 2.6%, Tata Motors added 2.5%, GAIL gained 2.6% on the BSE.

The laggards were BHEL declined 8%, Jindal Steel dropped 2.7%, Sun Pharma dropped 3.3%, Sterlite Industrial shed 3%, ICICI Bank was down 2.6% on the BSE.

The key notable movers included counters such HDFC dipped 0.5% to Rs 680 after the net interest margin (NIM) of the country’s largest mortgage declined to 3.9% in the quarter ended June 30, 2013 (Q1 FY2014) against 4.2% during March 31, 2013 quarter.

D B Corp surged 7.5% to Rs 266 on reporting a strong 74% year-on-year (yoy) jump in its consolidated net profit at Rs 76 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2013 (Q1 FY2014) on back of strong growth in advertising revenues. The media company had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 43.65 crore in the same period of previous fiscal.

Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) tanked 8 on back of heavy volumes. Analyst believe that for the foreseeable future, BHEL’s order inflows have peaked out in FY11 (Rs 60,000 crore) as India’s coal constraints will ensure cautious ordering from developers.

The broader markets ended lower with mid-caps and small-caps dropping 0.5-0.6 per cent on the BSE.

The market breadth was negative. Out of 2,487 stocks traded so far, 1,310 stocks declined while 1,033 stocks advanced on the BSE.