Markets end flat after Diwali sparkle

Markets ended flat on Friday as profit booking was seen at higher levels in late trades after the Sensex touched new all-time highs in intra-day trades.

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 21,197 levels up 32 points after hitting a fresh all-time high of 21,293.88 and the broader 50-share NSE Nifty ended up 8 points at 6,307.

On January 10, 2008 the BSE Sensex had touched an intra-day high of 21,206.77. Nifty touched an intra-day high of 6,332.60 but failed to breach its all-time intra-day high of 6357 which was last hit on on Jan 8, 2008.

Markets came off their day's highs in late morning trades as investors booked profits at higher levels in index heavyweights.

The current Sensex rally, which has propelled the index to its all-time high, has been driven by liquidity rather than earnings growth.

Experts say retail participation is still low and the recent rally is very narrow ranged in select benchmark heavyweights.

Foreign institutional investors have been aggresive buyers in Indian equities.

Till Wednesday, FIIs were net buyers for the 18th straight day during the month of October.

In calendar 2013, they have pumped more than Rs 86,000 crore (Rs 860 billion) in Indian stocks.

Since January 2008, defensive sectors such as pharma and FMCG along with IT majors and suport from Autos saw the Sensex touching a new all-time high.

Four stocks from 30-share S&P BSE Sensex -- ITC, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and HDFC Bank -- have collectively contributed nearly 4,500 points rise in benchmark index since January 2008.

Of the 10 stocks that saw a spectacular gain of over 100%, three stocks are from the pharmaceutical pack, three from the automobile sector and two each from the FMCG and IT space.

Among individual stocks, Sun Pharma tops the list with a gain of 458%, followed by TCS (up 335%), Hero MotoCorp (up 211%) and ITC (up 203%).

Interestingly, the Mid-cap and Small-cap stocks have failed to participate in the rally during the period since January 2008.

The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices quoting at 6,150 and 5,935 levels respectively, are trading over 30% below their historic highs.

The mid-cap index had touched a lifetime peak of 10,245.81 and the small cap touched an all-time high of 14,239.24 in January, 2008.

Meanwhile, the realty sector has been the worst hit.

The realty sector had hit an all-time high in 2008 at a level of 13,848.09.

With the sector currently trading at 1,365.46, it needs to rally nearly 900% before reaching its record high.

The rupee continued to remain weak against the US dollar and was trading at Rs 61.82 compared with the previous close of Rs 61.50.

Asian markets finished mixed as of the most recent closing prices.

The Shanghai Composite gained 0.37% and the Hang Seng rose 0.19%. The Nikkei 225 lost 0.88%.

Asian markets came off their day's lows and were trading mixed after manufacturing activity picked up in October led by China, after the world's second largest economy's factory output grew at its fastest pace in 18 months amid new orders.

The Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite were up 0.2-0.5% each. Nikkei was down over 1% while Straits Times was marginally down.

Top Sensex gainers were: SBI up 4.2 pct, M&M gains 4.1 pct, Jindal Steel rises 3.8 per cent.

The BSE Realty Index lead the sectoral gainers on the BSE up 2.7% followed by Bankex, Metal, Auto, Power and Capital Goods among others.

HDIL surges almost 8 pct, Indiabulls Real Estate gains 4 pct, Anant Raj Industries up 3.5 pct in the realty pack.

In the financials segment, SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and HDFC were up 0.3-4% each.

Auto shares firmed up on expectation of higher sales growth in October. Tata Motors, M&M, Hero MotoCorp, Maruti Suzuki and Bajaj Auto were up 0.3-2.3% each.

Other Sensex gainers include, Bharti Airtel, Coal India, Sesa Sterlite and L&T among others.

ITC Ltd is down 2 percent on continued muted outlook on its sales volume growth after July-September earnings last week, analysts say.

Among other shares, Glenmark Pharmaceuticals was down 3.7% at Rs 543 after the company witnessed a marginal decline of 1.6% in its net profit at Rs 154.2 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2013, as compared to Rs 156.7 crore in the same period last year.

However, its consolidated revenue has increased by 17% to Rs 1,463 crore during the period.

Titan Company Ltd shares fall 4.5 percent after the company said September-quarter net profit rose 4 percent to 1.87 billion rupees, missing some analysts' estimates.

Shares of IDFC were up 6% at Rs 112 after the company announced higher net profit on a standalone basis for the second quarter ended September 30, 2013.

Standalone Net profit for the second quarter was up 8% at Rs 498 crore compared with Rs 461 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.

The BSE Mid-cap and Small-cap indices were up 1% each.

Market breadth continued to reamin strong with 1,205 gainers and 761 losers on the BSE.