Indices end flat on profit booking

STOCK REPORT

Key indices on Thursday ended almost unchanged from Wednesday in choppy trade. Activity was stock-specific as nervous investors refrained from buying aggressively and booked profits at every opportunity. Shares of State Bank of India subsidiaries flared up after the Cabinet on Thursday approved the amendment to SBI Subsidiaries Act.

The Sensex closed nearly flat from Wednesday at 10840.59. It touched a high of 10924.29 and a low of 10792.98, earlier on Thursday.

The National Stock Exchange's 50-share Nifty ended 3247.15, up 7 points, off the session's high of 3265.60 and low of 3225.20. The combined total turnover in the cash segment on both the exchanges was Rs 144,33 crore.

"Domestic investors are taking cues from foreign investment trend," Arun Kejriwal, director of Kejriwal Research and Investment Services, said.

"With foreign investors taking a cautious stance at the moment, domestic investors are also adopting a similar stance," he said.

Foreign fund inflows to domestic shares have slowed down over the last few sessions, while they have been net sellers in the NSE's derivatives segment over the last couple of sessions.

In a major political development on Thursday, Congress President Sonia Gandhi resigned as member of Lok Sabha and as head of National Advisory Council following the controversy over holding an office of profit as member of Parliament.

Shares of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam ended up 4.5 per cent at Rs 181.25 on renewed hopes of its merger with Bharat Sanchar Nigam.

Other key index gainers were Steel Authority of India, Videsh Sanchar Nigam, Bharat Petroleum Corp, Tata Steel, and Zee Telefilms, up 3-7 per cent.

Dr Reddy's ended down 3.8 per cent at Rs 1,429 on profit sales. The stock rose nearly 10 per cent on Wednesday on hopes the company would agree on an out-of-court settlement with Sanofi-Aventis over the Plavix patent dispute.