Broader market steals the show; key indices end flat

Markets saw consolidation for a second straight day amid a volatile session that saw tepid volumes in heavyweights.

Action was elsewhere in the broader markets instead. Investors remained vary of high valuations in heavyweight stocks and instead went all guns blazing for the small-caps and mid-caps today.

Investors also remained jittery over US jobs data slated to be released later around midnight today.

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 20,865 down almost 29 points or 0.1% while the broader 50-share Nifty index closed at 6203 down 2 points.

The mid-cap and small-cap indices were the clear winner s and ended up adding between 0.7-1%, on the BSE for the day.

“Although Nifty has been showing immense resilience above 6,100 but breakout on the upside will be confirmed only with a weekly close above 6,200.

Yet again action was subdued today as index heavyweights consolidated after the recent rally.

However, we see the momentum in broader markets to accelerate as the CNX Mid-Cap index has broken out from the neckline of a bullish head & shoulder pattern indicating more upside is in store in near term.” said Hadrien Mendonca, Technical Analyst at India Infoline.

The rupee continued to trade weak due to month-end dollar demand from importers. USD-INR pared some of its initial losses and was trading at 61.58 at 3:45pm, against its previous close of Rs 61.52 per dollar.

Asian shares ended mixed and pulled back from their five-month high levels as markets awaited US jobs data that will give direction  on whether US Federal Reserve will its bond buying program this year.

Analysts polled by Reuters expect US nonfarm payrolls to have increased by 180,000 in September, with the jobless rate steady at 7.3%. The data's release has been delayed from October 4 by the 16-day US government shutdown.

The US central bank is expected to maintain its quantitative easing (QE) since the economic impact of the recent shutdown is yet unknown and the possibility of another bitter budget fight early next year. Some say, strong employment numbers could change challenge the status quo.

Top Sensex gainers were Tata Power up 2.63%, Sun Pharma up 2.10%, Coal India 1.82%, Gail India up 1.77% and Wipro was up 1.6% while Hindalco Inds(-1.6%), HDFC(-1.29%), Mahindra & Mahindra(-1.23%), Hero MotoCorp (-1.13%) and RIL (-1%) were the top Sensex losers.

Among sectors, power, capital goods, PSU, IT, TECk, banks, healthcare and metal stocks were the gainers on the BSE. Consumer Durables, Auto, oil & gas, realty and FMCG were off between 0.2% - 0.8 % on the BSE sectoral indices.

Overall breath of the market remained strong with 1492 stocks advancing against a decline seen in 1042.