Sensex closes flat; FMCG stocks down (Roundup)

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed Wednesday's trade flat with a mere 0.36 point gain.

Profit booking -- a day after the benchmark index closed over 700 points up to touch its largest single-day gain in four years -- was cited as the reason for the day's choppy trade.

The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened higher at 19,999.77 points, closed at 19,997.45, up 0.36 points from its previous close at 19,997.09 points.

The benchmark Sensex touched a high of 20,055.53 points and a low of 19,777.63 in highly volatile trade.

The wider 50-scrip S&P CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) gained 0.28 percent or 16.40 points at 5,913.15 points.

Extreme volatility was observed in the market a day after its largest single-day rally in four years on the back of a strengthening rupee, reduction in trade deficit and easing of the Syrian crisis.

Heavy selling pressure was observed in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), consumer durables, information technology (IT), oil and gas, technology, media and entertainment (TECk) sectors. However, healthy buying support came into the metal, bank, capital goods, healthcare and realty stocks.

The S&P BSE FMCG index closed 75.98 points down, followed by consumer durables, lower 39.05 points, IT index was down 19.11 points, oil and gas index was down 18.74 points and TECk index declined by 8.15 points.

However, metal index was 278.29 points up, bank index was 208.45 points higher, capital goods index gained 107.91 points, healthcare index rose by 105.74 points, and realty index was up 33.99 points.

Most of the 30 scrips on the sensitive index were gainers in the day's trade. These included Tata Steel, up 5.07 percent at Rs.316; Hindalco Inds, up 3.81 percent at Rs.114.30; State Bank of India (SBI), up 3.52 percent at Rs.1,688.90; Tata Power, up 2.90 percent at Rs.74.50; and Sun Pharma, up 2.46 percent at Rs.562.20.

The main losers were: Tata Motors, down 2.49 percent at Rs.340.50; Hindustan Unilever, down 1.76 percent at Rs.642.95; ITC, down 1.70 percent at Rs.329.70; BHEL, down 1.54 percent at Rs.140.40; and Cipla, down 1.28 percent at Rs.434.65.

Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 0.01 percent up, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng ended the day's trade 0.17 percent down. China's Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.15 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.08 percent down, while Germany's DAX Index was higher by 0.54 percent. The French CAC 40 Index was 0.01 percent up.