Markets end choppy session on a flat note

Markets had a choppy session of trade today as investors exercised caution ahead of an action packed next week.

At close, the Sensex was down 49 points at 19,733 and the Nifty was relatively unchanged at 5,851.

For most part of the trading session, the Nifty was range bound between 5,823-5,884.

in the broader markets, the mid and smallcap indices gained 0.6% each, outperforming the BSE benchmark index which closed in the negative 0.3%.

Next week, US Federal Reserve will decide to cut its $85 billion in monthly bond purchases when it meets on September 17-18 while the Bank of England’s minutes of the meeting will be released on September 18 that will give a hint of the health of UK's economy.

Domestically, the Reserve Bank of India will unveil its mid-quarter policy due on September 20 under the governorship of newly appointed Raghuram Rajan.

Rupee

The rupee continued to trade weak amid dollar demand by importers. However, the rupee recovered from its so far intra-day low of Rs 64.10 due to dollar sale by state-run banks acting on behalf of the Reserve Bank of India.

At 1600 hours, the partially convertible rupee was trading at 63.53 per dollar against the yesterday’s close of 63.54 on the Interbank Foreign Exchange.

Global Markets

Dollar rose after Japan's Nikkei newspaper said U.S. President Barack Obama will name former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, while gold and oil declined as the Syrian chemical weapons crisis abated.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan shed 0.8 percent, pulling further away from a three-month high and on track for a second losing day after a 10-day winning streak.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei share average edged up 0.1 percent, supported by its five-day moving average.

All the major European

markets were in the red. CAC, DAX and FTSE slipped 0.1-0.3%.

Sectors & Stocks

Barring FMCG, Teck, IT and Consumer Durables indices, down 1-1.5%, all the other sectral indices closed higher with gains of atleast 0.1%.

The major gainers were Realty, Power, Capital Goods and PSU indices up 2-3% followed by Auto, Oil & Gas and Metal indices which gained 0.5-0.8%.

Among theSensex-30, BHEL up 5.6% was the top gainer followed by Coal India, L&T, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Power and Hero MotoCorp which gained 2-3%.

ONGC, Gail India, NTPC, Bajaj Auto, Sun Pharma, Hindalco and Jindal Steel down 1-1.5% were the other prominent gainers.

Meanwhile, among the ones in the red were IT majors, Wipro, TCS and Infosys, down 0.8-3.6%.

FMCG majors, ITC and HUL closed in the negative, down 1.3% and 0.8% respectively.

Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel and HDFC which shed 1-1.5% rounded off the losers list.

Shares of most of the sugar companies are trading higher in trades today in an otherwise choppy markets after the food minister K V Thomas asked sugar mills to focus on exports.

Stocks such as DCM Shriram Inds, Shree Renuka Sugar, Eastern Sugar, Riga Sugar, Balrampur Chini, Dharani Sugars, Sakthi Sugars, Dhampur Sugar and Rana Sugars have rallied 1-5% each in trades so far.

Adani Ports and SEZ was up 5% at Rs 136 after the company reported that it has set a new national record in coal handling in a day at its Mundra Port.

McNally Bharat stock zoomed 7% to Rs 57 in early trade after the company announced that it won an order worth Rs. 144.32 crores.

Jyoti Structures soared 13% amidst reports that the Aion Capital Partners have invested Rs 300 crore in the company.

IL&FS Engineering surged 10% to Rs 29 after bagging an order worth Rs 244.46 crore from realty firm Emaar MGF.

The market breadth was positive owing to the strength in broader markets. 1,355 stocks advanced while 1,036 stocks declined on the BSE.