RIL bonus fails to cheer Sensex

The Indian bourses on Thursday ended on a flat note, despite displaying a bullish trend for most of the trading day.

The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index (Sensex) opened with a positive gap of 101 points, helped largely by a 5.2 per cent gain by Reliance in opening trades. The petrochemical major on Wednesday declared a surpise bonus share issue in the ratio of 1:1, after a gap of 12 years. The Sensex, however, after touching a high of 16,998.52 pared gains and slipped to a low of 16,775.36, as Reliance’s gains got similar treatment.

However, buying in FMCG and metal stocks helped the Sensex rebound into the positive. Reports of the finance minister’s positive outlook on economic growth, and healthy inflation data added to the buying momentum. Inflation dipped marginally to 0.7 per cent after a gap of almost two months. A fresh round on selling in late trades saw the Sensex once again pare gains and slip into the red, Reliance, too, wiped-out all its gains at one point of the time. The Sensex finally settled with a marginal gain of 36.88 points or 0.58 per cent at 16,843.54. The CNX Nifty closed the day at 5,002.25, up 16.50 points or 0.33 per cent.

Reliance, the index heavyweight, which touched a high of Rs 2,209 in opening trades following the bonus plans, finally ended on a tepid note at Rs 2,119, up 0.96 per cent on the BSE, amid heavy volumes of around 2.48 million shares.

Most of the Asian markets ended on a firm note for the third straight day. Sentiments got a boost after Australian employers unexpectedly added workers last month. The Hang Seng was up 1.18 per cent and the Shanghai Composite Index increased 0.90 per cent. The Taiwan Weighted Index, on the other hand, slipped 1.38 per cent and the Jakarta Composite Index was down 1.15 per cent.

Among the Sensex-30 components, Tata Motors gained the most, surging 5.35 per cent. Reliance Infrastructure (4.89 per cent), Tata Steel (3.56 per cent), Jaiprakash Associates (3.20 per cent), Hindustan Unilever (2.72 per cent), ITC (2.31 per cent) and Mahindra & Mahindra (2.14 per cent) were some prominent gainers on the BSE.

IT stocks continued to drag. Bharti Airtel was the major loser, down 6,6 per cent, followed by Reliance Communications (6 per cent) and Infosys (lost 2 per cent, ahead of its results tomorrow). Sun Pharmaceuticals, TCS, Infosys, Maruti Suzuki, Larsen & Toubro and Wipro declined 1.5-3.5 per cent each.

Among the sectoral indices, the FMCG index surged 2.76 per cent. It was followed by realty (2.31 per cent), auto (1.82 per cent), oil & gas (1.77 per cent) and power indices (1.57 per cent). The TECk index tumbled 2.45 per cent and the IT index was down 1.69 per cent, respectively.

The market breadth was negative. Out of 2,868 shares traded, 1,512 declined ,1,246 advanced and 110 were unchanged on the BSE.