Markets end flat

Reliance Industries and Infosys lead gains

Markets ended flat on Friday amid political logjam after the Lok Sabha was adjourned today and ahead of all-party meeting on FDI convened by government on Monday.

Parliament was adjourned today amid uproar by Trinamool Congress members over the issue of FDI in retail and Congress members citing reports claiming that BJP had influenced the CAG report on 2G allocation.

The 30-share Sensex ended down 11 points at 18,507 and the Nifty closed flat at 5,627. The reversal was helped by gains in index heavyweights like Reliance Industries and Infosys.

Earlier in the day, market remained volatile swinging between the red and the green. The Sensex touched a low of 18402 and the Nifty slipped to hit a low of 5,593 as investor sentiment weakened as both the Houses of the Parliament had to be adjourned due to uproar over FDI in retail and SC/ST quota Bill.

The broader markets too regained some of its lost ground. The midcap and the smallcap indices where flat with a positive bias, up 0.1-0.2%, outperforming the BSE benchmark index which closed flat with a negative bias.

In Asia, shares rose on Friday and were on course for a weekly gain of more than 2.5 percent, their best in two months, after manufacturing surveys from the world's biggest economies raised hopes that the global growth outlook is improving at last.

Among the major markets, Nikkei was shut for the day. Shanghai Composite, Hang Seng, KOSPI Composite and Taiwan Weighted were the notable gainers adding between 0.6-3%.

European stock markets were mixed on Friday in a day of choppy trading as a testy European Union (EU) budget summit was set to reconvene later in the morning. DAX and FTSE were up 0.1-0.2% while CAC was flat with a negative bias.

Oil & Gas, Consumer Durables and Auto indices up nearly 0.2-0.3% were the only indices to close in the green. Meanwhile, PSU, Realty, Health Care, Bankex and Metal indices slipped 0.3-0.8%. Capital Goods, IT, FMCG and Power remained flat in the closing trades.

The gainers among the Sensex-30 were BHEL, Hero MotoCorp, Tata Power, Hindustan Unilever, Sun Pharma, TCS, Tata Motors, Reliance Industries and Coal India up 0.7-1.5%

Among the draggers were NTPC, Gail India, Cipla, ITC, Wipro, Bharti Airtel, Sterlite and ICICI Bank down 0.7-1.5%.

In individual stocks, Crompton Greaves moved higher by 3% at Rs 114 after the company said that it has set up a high-efficiency, low-voltage rotating machines (LVRM) plant at Goa.

Shares of aviation companies mainly Jet Airways and SpiceJet rallied more than 8-16% each on back of heavy volumes.

Shares of Edelweiss Financial Services and Greaves Cotton have rallied 4-5% each on back of huge bulk deals in these counters.

Ranbaxy Laboratories was down 3% at Rs 496 after the pharmaceutical firm said that it has recalled Atorvastatin, a generic version of Lipitor, from the USA market.

The market breadth was negative as 1505 stocks declined while 1309 stocks advanced on the BSE.