Markets end flat on November settlement day

28 November 2008

The markets ended flat amid choppy trade on November settlement day. Volumes were pretty low in today's trade. This could be partly because the Mumbai terror strike stretched into the second day. At the time the markets closed, the Oberoi hotel was evacuated and completely under the control of police. Today's volatility was mainly led by Reliance Industries and ONGC.

Technology stocks, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, BHEL, Bharti Airtel, Sterlite Industries and Tata Power were supporting the markets. On the other side, selling was seen in oil & gas stocks, SBI, L&T, NTPC, Reliance Infrastructure, Unitech, DLF, SAIL and Tata Steel.

The Sensex shut shop at 9,092.72, with a gain of 66 points or 0.73% over previous close. It swung 268.44 points between an intraday high of 9,157.62 and low of 8,889.18. The 50-share NSE Nifty swung 88.7 points between high/low of 2779 and 2690.30, before closing the day at 2755.10, up just 2.85 points or 0.10%.

Market breadth was weak throughout the session due to broader indices. About 1155 shares have advanced while 1552 shares have declined. Nearly 490 shares remained unchanged.

Among the broader indices, BSE Midcap Index rose 8.38 points or 0.29% to 2,885.76 while Small Cap Index fell 10.28 points or 0.31% to 3,304.61.

As per the schedule, the November series was supposed to finish yesterday. But the panic situation due to terror attack, the SEBI had postponed it to Friday. The markets were closed on Thursday.