Markets give up early advantage, end flat

The markets began with a bang, but ended with a whimper. This cliched expression encapsulates the day’s proceedings.

The Sensex had surged by more than 250 points in early trades on the back of firm Asian stocks and strong trade data from China. It then surrendered all its gains, to close lower by 13 points, at 17,526, and the Nifty ended at 5,249, up four points.

The benchmark indices have been stagnant after touching a new 52-week high early last week. And, the volumes have been abysmal.

The broader markets, however, continued their outperformance. The mid-cap and small-cap indices gained 0.9 per cent and 1.8 per cent, respectively, and the market breath was overwhelmingly in favour of the bulls.

Meanwhile, exports in December rose to $14.6 billion, up 9.4 per cent over November, on the back of a strong growth in pharma, engineering and auto component sectors. The realty sector built on Friday’s gains. DLF was the leading gainer on the Sensex, strengthening by 2.3 per cent, at Rs 399. Indiabulls and Unitech rallied between two and four per cent.

Software pivotals rose ahead of Infosys’ Q3 results on Tuesday. TCS closed higher by 1.9 per cent, at Rs 714, and Infosys ended up 0.9 per cent, at Rs 2,488. Wipro, however, ended lower by 1 per cent, at Rs 662.

MBL Infrastructures made a sparkling debut on the bourses. The stock ended Day 1 at Rs 206, which is a 14 per cent premium to its issue price of Rs 180.

On the other hand, the energy sector faced the brunt of Reliance’s weakness. The index bellwether was the top Sensex loser, shedding 1.8 per cent, at Rs 1,081, after raising Rs 3,465 crore through the sale of 33 million treasury shares within days of raising the offer for bankrupt US-based chemical maker, LyondellBasell Industries, to $13.5 billion. Cairn lost 1.7 per centat Rs 300 and HPCL shed 0.7 per cent at Rs 390.

Mayank Shah, CEO, Anagram Capital, said, “The market is likely to trade volatile, albeit range-bound. The Infosys results, inflation numbers and stimulus announcement scheduled on January 12 will determine the immediate trend.”