Indian equity markets close flat

Wed, 11 Sep Closing

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   09:30 am   

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Post the extended losses in the afternoon session, the Indian equity markets have closed on a flat note today. Stocks across the board ended on a mixed note with those from the Realty, Metals, banks and capital goods' space leading the gains. The stocks of PSU banks have zoomed today lifting the positive sentiments in the market. The BSE-Sensex closed flat and was up by about 0.4 points while the NSE-Nifty closed up by 16.4 points. The BSE Mid Cap and the BSE Small Cap indices closed on a firm note and were up by 1.3% and 1.1% respectively.

As regards global markets, most of the Asian indices have closed on a positive note. The European indices have opened on a mixed note. The rupee was trading at Rs 64.1 to the dollar at the time of writing.

Except Tata Motors and Mah. Scooters, all Automobile stocks have ended the day in green with Ashok Leyland and Eicher Motor leading the gains. Thanks to the festive season, Indian auto market has entered the positive growth territory after 9 months. The overall sales witnessed 15.37% Y-o-Y growth in the month of August. In absolute terms, the Indian car market sold 133486 cars in the month of August current year against sale of 115705 units same period a year ago. The country's largest car maker, Maruti Suzuki clocked the highest growth of around 52.7% in the month of August. Followed by Maruti, Honda and Ford, which have benefitted from the performance of the Amaze and Ecosport respectively, have observed impressive sales performance. The ones that have witnessed fall in the month of August 2013 includes big players such as Tata Motors, Mahindra and Mahindra and Toyota Kirloskar Motors. Maruti Suzuki's stock ended the day on a positive note and was up by 0.9%.

Energy stocks have ended the day today on a mixed note with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (BPCL) and HPCL leading the gains and Chennai Petroleum and Cairn India facing the maximum selling pressures. According to leading financial news daily, the Russian government has given a crucial tax concession to shale oil gas explorers in the Tomsk region. This has renewed hopes for Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (ONGC) for its investment in Imperial Energy. ONGC's foreign arm, ONGC Videsh has paid USD 2.1 bn to acquire Imperial Energy four years ago; however it turned out to be a loss-making investment for the company. ONGC believes that this is a positive development and is hopeful of improving its net realization from the Imperial's oil field. The company is expected to make some fresh investments in the pilot project which should be take one year time before ONGC considers the commercial extraction of shale oil. The share of ONGC closed in red and was down by 0.9%.