Indian shares ended flat after recovering most of their intra-day losses on Friday led by buying in state-owned oil marketing companies however, risk appetite was slightly frail after several Federal Reserve officials expressed concerns about continuing to expand stimulative bond buying in the Thursday's FOMC meet.
The 30-share Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange gained 4.90 points to end at 19,769.68 provisionally and the 50-share Nifty rose 4.15 points at 6,013.65 provisionally.
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Updated at 2:30PM
Indian shares recovered most of their intra-day losses and traded flat in afternoon led by buying in oil company stocks and software makers.
However, risk appetite was slightly frail after several Federal Reserve officials expressed concerns about continuing to expand stimulative bond buying in the Thursday's FOMC meet.
At 2:30PM, the 30-share Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange traded down 20 points at 19,744.52 and the 50-share Nifty declined 8.45points at 6,000.95 in the late trades.
Oil companies rallied on reports the petroleum ministry has proposed a gradual rise in diesel prices, by 1 rupee a litre every month over a 10-month period.
Investors also bought IT stocks on hopes of better third quarter earnings. Infosys, the bellwether stock of the technology index, will release results on January 11.
Meanwhile, HSBC's Services Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for December stood at 55.6, up from 52.1 in the previous month, signaling a sharp expansion in activity.
Global risk appetite was weak. Asian and European stocks traded on a negative note.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng declined 0.3% to 23,331, Taiwan's Weighted index fell 0.4% to 7,805, Singapore's Straits Times was down 0.06% to 3,222 . Equity markets in Japan and mainland China opened today with Shanghai Composite trading up 0.25% to 2,276 while Nikkei gained 2.8% to 10,688.
European indices such as France's CAC declined 0.2% to 3,713, Germany's DAX dropped 0.14% to 7,745 while France's FTSE shed 0.01% to 6,046 .
On the domestic front, barring Oil & gas, PSU, technology and IT, rest all sectors fell on BSE. Metal, FMCG, capital goods, autos, real-esate, banks led declines on BSE.
Among key Sensex stocks, laggards included Tata Power dropped 1%, Reliance Industries dropped 0.2%, Jindal Steel, Hindalco and Sterlite fell nearly 2% each while Tata Motors was down 0.7% and Hero Motocorp declined 0.3% on BSE.
The gainers were ONGC gained 2.4%, BHEL rose 1.4%, Bharti Airtel rose 0.3% , TCS, Infosys and Wipro rose 0.3-1% on BSE.
Other notable movers included Tecpro Systems which rose 3% to Rs 153 after the company said it has received an order worth of Rs 147 crore from Damodar Valley Corporation for supply and related services for coal handling plant package for Bokaro Thermal Power Station.
Shares of DLF were down over 2% after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has modified the buyer-builder agreement in the case of ‘abuse of dominance’ by the country’s largest realty player DLF.
Shares of Hindustan Dorr-Oliver were up 5.5% at Rs 28 after the company late Thursday said it has received two prestigious orders from Gujarat State Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd worth Rs 277 crore.
The broader markets outperformed benchmark indices with mid-caps and small-caps gaining nearly 0.3-.0.4% on BSE.
The market breadth was negative. Out of 2,939 stocks traded, 1,440 stocks declined compared to 1,364 gainers on BSE.
