Markets end in green as metals shine

Markets ended in the positive zone after giving up most of its early gains as Reliance reversed trend. A soft opening for European markets also dampened sentiments. The Sensex slipped 228 points from the day's high to a low of 17,474. The index recovered partially and finally ended up 81 points at 17,563. Nifty ended up 18 points at 5,284.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has backtracked after granting the Most Favoured Nation status to India in trade recently.

Global markets ended in red as investors looked at the G20 summit in Cannes for direction. The Hang Seng surged 3% to 19,842. Nikkei added 2% to 8,801. Seoul Composite and Taiwan Weighted advanced 2-3% each.

BSE oil & gas index shed 0.4% to 9,026. All other sectoral indices ended in the green with BSE metal index holding on to gains at 11,843 - up 1.6%. BSE realty, IT and bankex advanced 0.5% each.

Reliance reversed gains and slipped 0.5% to Rs 880. Tata group of stocks declined. Tata Power shed 2% to Rs 103. TCS dropped 0.4% to Rs 1,099. Tata Motors was down 0.4% at Rs 188. Other auto shares - Mahindra & Mahindra and Maruti Suzuki also declined nearly a per cent each after most automobile companies reported weak sales in October. Rising cost of ownership and high interest rates have cooled down sales of passenger cars and commercial vehicles. According to Angel Broking, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors posted volume numbers that were not in tandem with expectations.

Bharti Airtel was up 1.3% at Rs 398 after announcing Q2 numbers. The company reported a bigger-than-expected 38.17% fall in quarterly profit bringing its consolidated net profit down to Rs 1,027 crore ($210 million), hit by higher interest costs and foreign exchange losses worth Rs 239 crore. Bharti Airtel is looking to spend $1.4 to $1.5 billion on its Africa operations in the current fiscal to end-March, a company executive said on Friday.

Among other shares, Sun TV Network rallied 5% to Rs 287, extending the previous day’s gain of 5%, after the board of directors declared an interim dividend of Rs 3.75 a share (75%) on the face value of Rs 5 per share.

Manappuram Finance surged 4% to Rs 61 on reporting a 125% year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in net profit to Rs 135 crore for the quarter ended September 30, compared to Rs 60 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

Power equipment makers such as Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), BGR Energy Systems, BF Utilities and Siemens are trading higher by 1-3% each for the second day in a row on reports that the government will consider imposing higher duty on imported power equipment, which may work to the advantage of domestic power equipment manufacturers.

HCL Infosystems' net profit for the quarter ending September 2011  plunged 74% at Rs 12.15 crore as its flagship computer retailing business suffered in an economic slowdown worsened by lesser government investment in computing and office automation business. The stock was down 4.2% at Rs 63.

Marico reported a 9.3% increase in net profit at Rs 78.2 crore for the quarter ended September 2011. It was Rs 71.5 crore in the same period a year ago. Total income too rose 25.7% to Rs 985 crore from Rs 783 crore in the year-ago period. The stock ended flat at Rs 149.

BSE market breadth is positive. Out of 2,976 shares traded, 1,576 shares advanced while 1,234 shares declined.