The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) sensex finished flat on Wednesday after modest gains in index heavyweights Hindustan Lever and Reliance Industries were offset by the disappointing results posted by select blue-chip companies.
The sensex ended with a modest gain of 3.36 points at 2,888.59, off the intra-day high of 2,908.21.
Meanwhile, on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the S&P CNX Nifty index gained 0.85 points to end at 937.75. Gainers outnumbered losers on lower volumes.
"The market failed to hold on to the previous day's gains, as follow-through buying did not come about," the head of sales at a domestic brokerage house said.
Brokers said the undertone was cautious due to sustained selling by foreign funds this month. Offshore funds have dumped Indian shares for a net Rs 732.8 crore ($153.6 million) in October so far, the highest net sales in a single month in more than two years.
Media major Zee Telefilms shed 3.95 per cent to Rs 80.35 on disappointing quarterly results. Other key tech stocks also remained weak. Satyam Computer settled 0.62 per cent lower at Rs 223.05, and Infosys Technologies lost 0.14 per cent to Rs 3,787.55 due to the overnight drop on Nasdaq.
Meanwhile, cement stocks ended lower on disappointing results, which were impacted by lower prices in the past quarter.
Gujarat Ambuja Cements recovered from a one-year low, but closed down 0.45 per cent at Rs 155.75. The company's net profit tumbled 63 per cent in the second quarter.
Larsen & Toubro eased 0.11 per cent after its July-September quarter earnings fell short of analysts' estimates.
FMCG major Hindustan Lever advanced 3.2 per cent to Rs 162.90 after the Reserve Bank of India permitted foreign funds to buy up to 49 per cent in the company, up from 24 per cent.
Dec futures spiral down
Nifty futures tracked the underlying today and settled with marginal gains. The S&P CNX Nifty index ended up by 0.85 points at 937.75.
October futures increased by 0.50 points and closed at 938.00. November contracts, to which the focus has now shifted, edged up 0.50 points to 939.90.
December futures, however, declined. They closed at 941.00, down 1.25 points. "With the near-month futures expiring tomorrow, the focus has now shifted to the November futures," a dealer at an institutional brokerage house said. Nifty futures saw a trading volume of Rs 220.28 crore from 11,719 contracts.
In index options, Nifty options saw 1544 contracts getting traded at a notional value of Rs 29.43 crore.
The put-call ratio has declined to 1.17 from 1.45 on Tuesday. The demand for October call, at 940 with 192 contracts traded, was the most. The put, at the same strike price, also saw interest.
In stocks options, the top twenty contracts contributed around 48 per cent of the total traded volume. Satyam Computer was the most active and Reliance Industries was next with 2248 contracts being traded.
The put-call ratio of Satyam Computer and Infosys Technologies inched higher. In Reliance, the ratio fell to 0.18 from 0.36.
In stocks futures, with the near-month contracts expiring today, November futures have started generating interest.
October futures of Satyam and Reliance ended at a discount. However, Reliance's November futures closed at a premium.
