Mumbai, Nov 2: In volatile trade today, the BSE Sensex ended on a flat note—slipping 16 points to 17,464.85 on weak cues from global markets, amid persisting euro-zone debt troubles, even as heavyweight RIL made gains and cushioned the fall.
The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share barometer opened weak and touched a low of 17,337.65, down 143 points, following weak cues from Asian markets as Greece decided to go in for a referendum on the plan by European leaders to rescue it from the debt crisis.
European markets opened higher, helping Sensex rebound to the day's high of 17,615.92, up over 135 points. Later, it fell in line with European equities and ended at 17,464.85, a small fall of 15.98 points or 0.09 per cent. It lost 324 points in the last two sessions.
However, the NSE wide-based Nifty settled just stable at 5,258.45 from 5,257.95.
Fall in Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank, Hero MotoCorp, NTPC, Coal India, Tata Steel, Tata Motors, Maruti Suzuki, Infosys and HDFC pulled down the market.
However, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), with heaviest weight on the Sensex, was the top gainer - up 1.27 per cent - and cushioned the fall amid reports of that the Mukesh Ambani led group will share telecom infrastructure of the company led by younger brother Anil.
CNI CMD Kishor Ostwal said the BSE index dropped the third day in a row on negative global cues and added, “Today, they (investors) chose to remain mute ahead of Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.”
Ostwal said Greece's cabinet approval for referendum on European Union bailout also hurt investor sentiment. He said, however, that Indian market has done fairly well compared to the yesterday's performance of global stocks.
In Asia, Key indices of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan closed with losses, while those in China, Hong Kong and Singapore settled with gains.
In Europe, the CAC was up by about 0.8 per cent and the DAX by 0.5 per cent, while FTSE was down by 0.5 per cent.
In US, the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq Composite yesterday dipped by 1.97 per cent and 2.89 per cent.
Back home, after five days of continued inflows FIIs turned net sellers. They pulled out Rs 20.66 crore yesterday as per stock exchanges data.
In all, 15 of the 30 Sensex-scrips ended in the red, while others finished in the green. Hero MotoCorp dipped by 2.84 per cent, followed by Bharti Airtel (2.63 pc), NTPC (1.24 pc), BHEL (1.10 pc), CIL (1.06 pc), ICICI Bank (0.93 pc), Tata Steel (0.83 pc), Tata Motors (0.75 pc) and Maruti (0.65 pc).
From sectoral indices, BSE auto declined 0.44 per cent and Bankex by 0.35 per cent, while Oil & Gas rose 0.76 pc and Healthcare by 0.44 pct.
The total market breadth was slightly negative with 1,435 counters losing ground, as against 1,394 finishing with gains. The total turnover was at Rs 2,220.86 crore from Rs 2,238.26 crore yesterday.
