Mkt ends flat, Bank stocks gain

New Delhi: It was another sluggish and flat session for markets with Sensex and Nifty ending marginally in green.

The Asian cues were largely positive, Shanghai saw some wild swings but ended in green. Rest of Asia also did well for itself. Selective buying was seen in telecom, technology, capital goods and banking stocks. The BSE mid cap index ended marginally higher than the frontline indices and the BSE small cap index ended inline with Sensex.

In the telecom sector MTNL and VSNL ended higher. Capital goods stocks like Suzlon, BEML, Crompton ended strong.

The IPO space was on fire with Nitin Fire Protection had a bumper opening with 75 per cent premium and closed up 163 per cent at Rs 501.

NIIT declared its FY07 numbers, bonus issue and stock split. The stock ended up over 8.6 per cent.

Sensex is up 39.24 points or 0.27 per cent at 14535.01, and the Nifty up 17.60 points or 0.41 per cent at 4284.65.

About 1295 shares have advanced, 1260 shares declined, and 71 shares are unchanged. The BSE Mid cap Index ended at 6,261.02 up 27.44 points or 0.44 per cent. The BSE Small cap Index ended at 7,486.67 up 19.90 points or 0.27 per cent.

The BSE Bankex was up 1.06 per cent at 7,823.97. Kotak Mahindra, Oriental Bank, Federal Bank, Canara Bank and Bank of Baroda moved upwards.

The BSE Capital Goods Index was up 0.5 per cent at 11,154.27. BEML, Crompton Greave, Praj Industries, SKF India and HEG closed higher.

The BSE Health Care Index was up 0.2 per cent at 3,847.99. Nicholas Piramal, Wyeth, Ranbaxy Labs, Novartis India and Sun Pharma closed higher.

The BSE Auto Index closed at 4,960.25 up 0.2 per cent. TVS Motor, Cummins, Bajaj Auto, Escorts, Ashok Leyland and Amtek Auto surged. The BSE Metal Index closed at 10,648.83 up 0.1 per cent. Sterlite Ind, NALCO, Mah Seamless, Tata Steel and Hind Zincadvanced higher.

The BSE FMCG Index lost 1.3 per cent at 1,869.87. United Breweries, United Spirits, Tata Tea, ITC and Marico closed lower.

BSE Oil and Gas Index closed higher at 7,712.08 up 0.3 per cent. Reliance Natural, Petronet LNG, MRPL, GAIL and IOC ended in green. The BSE IT Index gained 0.8 per cent at 4,884.93. I-Flex Solution, Infosys, Mphasis, Patni Computer and Wipro closed higher.

The NSE cash turnover was at Rs 9175.93 crore and the NSE F&O turnover was at Rs 31210.07 crore. The BSE cash turnover was Rs 4371.22 crore. Total market wide turnover was at Rs 44757.22 crore.