Weekly markets: Sensex ends flat on global cues

The week saw the markets dropping lower from their highest in over two months.

The Sensex touched a high of 17,919 on Monday as the government ended the confusion over Ulips. However, global cues pressed the index down and it remained subdued during the next few days. Thursday, saw the markets becoming volatile ahead of the F&O expiry. The government's decision to hike fuel prices dragged the Sensex down .. points from the week's high to a low of 17,546.

The Sensex finally ended absolutely flat at 17,574 - up just four points in the week.

Nifty ended at 5,269.

The ongoing tussle between Sebi and Irda came to an end with the government, on Monday, ruling that Ulips with investment component are insurance products which will come under the regulatory jurisdiction of the Irda.

In a major decision to bring petroleum products in line with market rates, the government today freed petrol from all pricing controls and hiked diesel prices by Rs two a litre, Oil Secretary S Sundareshan announced after the meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers. Accordingly, petrol and will cost up to Rs 3.73 per litre more, households will have to pay an additional Rs 35 per cylinder and poor man's cooking medium kerosene will be dearer by Rs 3 a litre.

In other major news, RIL signed a new revised agreement with RNRL. The Supreme Court had asked the two groups to renegotiate the gas pact and base it on the fact that government is the owner of the gas and hence, has the last word on its pricing and utilisation.  Armed with the new agreement, the Anil Ambani group would now move the government seeking allocation of gas to its power plants, including its upcoming projects in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh.

BSE mid and small-cap indices outperformed the Sensex. Mid-cap index jumped 15% to 7,083. Small-cap index was up 1.6% at 8,989.

Among the sectoral indices, BSE consumer durables surged 3% to 4,605. Oil & gas sector gained from the fuel price hike. Index jumped 3% to 10,605. Healthcare, FMCG and PSU index were up marginally.

However, IT index dropped 1.4% to 5,323. Bankex slipped 1% to 10,752 on fears of a rate hike.

ONGC jumped 6% to Rs 1,264.

Reliance Communications gained 4.3% to Rs 193.

Hindustan Unilever, Maruti Suzuki and Tata Steel added 3.5% each to Rs 266, Rs 1,397 and Rs 490, respectively.

Cipla, Tata Power, ITC and Hindalco were some of the other gainers.

However, Wipro dropped 4.7% to Rs 391. TCS shed 2.5% at Rs 762. Infosys was flat at Rs 2,777.

Jindal Steel slipped 4% to Rs 643. Tata Motors was down 3.7% at Rs 769.

SBI, HDFC Bank, NTPC, Larsen & Toubro and ICICI Bank were the major losers.