Markets end flat amid narrow trade

Markets ended flat on Monday after moving in a narrow range for most part of the trading session.

The Sensex closed higher by 30 points at 18,339 and the 50-share Nifty slipped 3 points to close at 5,571.

The Sensex moved in a range of 130 points while the Nifty moved in a range of 43 points.

The Asian Markets ended on a positive note in trades today as investors were encouraged by an improving outlook for talks to resolve an imminent fiscal crunch in the United States.

US lawmakers expressed confidence on Sunday that they could reach a deal to avert the $600 billion "fiscal cliff", which threatened to send the giant economy back into recession.

Hang Seng advanced 103 points to 21,262, Nikkei advanced 129 points to close at 9,153, Straits Times advanced 11 points to 2,956, Seoul Composite jumped 17 points to 1,878 and the Snaghai Composite closed higher by 2 points at 2,016.

The European markets were trading mixed with DAX and FTSE marginally down and the CAC-40 trading higher by 0.1%.

Back home, most of the Sensex stocks faced the heat of a mild selling pressure.

Tata Power is was the top Sensex loser, down 2.4% at Rs 97. Tata Steel, TCS, HDFC, Reliance Industries, GAIL India, Sterlite Industries, Hindalco, HUL, Wipro, Larsen & Toubro, Dr Reddy's Labs, State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, BHEL and Tata Motors also ended on a weak note.

Auto shares were among the top gainers on hopes that the demand pick up during the festival sales would boost sales growth during the current month.

According to brokerage reports, Maruti has large pending orders for Maruti Swift Dzire while Mahindra & Mahindra has huge pending orders for its sports utility vehicle XUV 500. Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp ended up 1.8-3.6% each.

Telecom major Bharti Airtel extended gains and ended up 3.3% after the government failed to attract bidders during the 2G

spectrum auction. ITC also extended gains and was up over 2.2%.

NTPC gained 1.1% after the company said that the Unit No. 5 of 500 MW of Rihand Super Thermal Power Station has been commissioned for commercial operations.

On the sectoral front, the BSE consumer durables index was the top loser.

The index slipped 1.3% to end at 7,377 levels. Capital goods, metal, healthcare, PSU, oil & gas, IT and power indices also ended weak. While, auto, FMCG and realty indices were among the gainers.

Among the individual stocks, L&T Finance Holdings (LTFH) dipped 9.6% to end at Rs 75.55, extending its Friday's 3% fall after rising over 50% in past two weeks on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

The stock opened at Rs 83.75 and has seen a combined 18.38 million shares have changing hands on the counter till early noon deals on both the exchanges.

Panacea Biotec gained 2% to end at Rs 108 after the company announces that it has entered into a strategic alliance with Kremers Urban, a subsidiary of Belgium-based UCB, for 11 high barrier to entry generics, whose market size in US at the innovator level is around $4 billion.

Mahindra Lifespace Developers surged 7.3% to Rs 435 on back of heavy volumes after foreign institutional investors (FIIs) increased their holdings in the company by around one percentage points in past one-and-half month.

Honeywell Automation India soared 16% to Rs 3,315 on buzz that Honeywell Asia Pacific, the parent company, is planning to delist the company's shares from the Indian stock exchanges.

Future Capital Holdings jumped 5.5% to Rs 183, extending its previous day's 8% rally, on back of over three-fold jump in trading volumes.

The broader markets are under performed the benchmark indices. The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices slipped 0.9% each.

The overall breadth was negative as 1,75 stocks declined while 1,063 advanced.