Volatile Sensex ends flat, bankex weighs

The markets closed flat for the second consecutive day with bouts of volatality witnessed throughout the day.

The Sensex closed down 16 points at 18,512, down 177 points from the day's high, and the Nifty shed nine points to close at 5,541.

In the broader markets, the midcap index closed flat at 6,869 while the smallcap index held its gains at 8,364, up 0.2% outperforming the BSE benchmark index, down 0.09%.

At the start of the day, the markets opened flat tracking lacklustre cues in the global markets as commodity prices firmed up renewing concerns of inflation and further rate hike.

As the day progressed the Sensex climbed north on the back of strength seen in the FMCG space particularly Hindustan Unilever.

From thereon the markets consolidated gains but due to the selling pressure seen in the banking space the markets slipped into the negative in afternoon trades.Chandan Taparia, Derivatives and technical analyst, Anand Rathi Financial Services indicates that if one were to look at OI concentration 5500 is likely to act as an important support levels.

On the upside the Nifty has strong resistance around 5600-5620 levels and if it sustains above these levels then only further upmove may be seen towards 5700 levels.

Among the sectoral indices, FMCG continued its positive run for the second straight day on the back of gains witnessed in United Breweries and Hindustan Unilever.

Realty index added another percent to close the day as the second top gainer. On the other hand, banking and consumer durables indices were the laggards for the major part of the day, down 0.6% each.

Bank shares dropped through the day on worries about rising interest rates which would hurt future profits.

The draggers in this space were Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank,Canara Bank and ICICI Bank down 1% each.On the realty front, Godrej Properties up 3% followed by Ackruti City, HDIL and Unitech which gained 2% were leading the gains.

The top gainers among the Sensex-30 stocks for the day were Hindustan Unilever and NTPC up 4% followed by Sterlite Industries, Jaiprakash Associates, Reliance Communications and DLF which added between 1-3%.

Among the losers for the day were HDFC Bank, Hero Honda, Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Power down 1% ecah followed by Tata Steel, Infosys and RIL which lost between 0.7 - 0.9%

The market breadth was negative. Of the total 2931 stocks traded on the BSE, 1410 stocks declined while 1370 advanced.

In the commodities space, both the precious metals, silver and gold extended gains on sustained buying by stockists and jewellers for the ongoing marriage season, amid a firming global trend.Brent crude eased slightly, paring an early fall, as the dollar held steady but unexpectedly high Chinese crude imports indicated demand was resilient.

US crude was 92 cents lower at $101.62 a barrel, after sliding by more than 2%.