Business

Sensex ends flat

MUMBAI: The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark index on Tuesday ended flat after touching yet another intra-day peak of 11,146.85 in highly volatile trading, as institutional investors and traders were engaged in squaring up of positions due to year-end considerations and approaching expiry of derivatives contract.

The BSE 30-share index (Sensex) ended at an all-time closing peak of 11,086.03, modestly up by 7.01 points over Monday's close of 11,079.02 after moving between 11,146.85 and 11,051.13. Domestic mutual funds and operators and traders heavily squared up positions in view of approaching end of the current financial year, market players said. Selling pressure was also attributed to the expiry of the Futures and Options (F&O) contract on Thursday.

Foreign institutional investors too slowed down their inflows during the day.

The FIIs were consistent net buyers and reported net purchases of Rs. 4,969 crore so far in the month.

Mutual funds seemed to be engaged in negative activity due largely to year-end considerations despite having lot of investible funds and potential to make purchases even at the prevailing price levels, they added.

Domestic mutual funds reportedly have raised more than Rs. 17,000 crore through various unit schemes.

Heavyweights such as Infosys Technologies, ONGC, HDFC, Wipro and Maruti Udyog scored impressive gains enabling the market to end in the positive territory.

RIL, L&T, BHEL, Dr. Reddy's Lab, Hero Honda, ICICI Bank, SBI, Tata Power, ACC and Satyam Computer showed sharp falls. The volume of business remained high but was relatively low at Rs. 5,945.63 crore against Rs. 6,162.90 crore. — PTI

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