Sensex ends 22 points up

Sensex ended flat but managed to snap its 2-session falling trend with 22 point gain on Monday.

In a cautious two-way movement,the BSE benchmark Sensex ended flat but managed to snap its two-session falling trend with 22 point gain,as domestic funds bought scrips despite weak global trends.

In a scrip-specific activity,the total market breadth was negative due to sell-off in second line stocks by wary retail investors on concerns over possible hike in key policy rates by RBI at its quarterly policy review meeting slated on January 25.

The Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share barometer continued to veer in and out of positive terrain in a range of 19,018.94 and 18,779.38 before concluding the day at 18,882.25,a mere rise of 21.81 points or 0.12 per cent.

IT as well as some of the financial stocks helped the Sensex end the day on a positive note.

Sensex-based software bellwethers TCS,Infosys Tech and Wipro ended up by 2.06 per cent,1.74 per cent and 0.67 per cent respectively. Among the financial stocks,largest housing loan provider HDFC firmed up by 3.15 per cent,followed by HDFC Bank,1.09 per cent and SBI,up 0.57 pct.

The shares of Anil Ambani group companies,Reliance Infra and Reliance Power,with whom RNRL has now merged,tumbled 7.84 per cent and 6.13 per cent respectively after the market regulator Sebi late last Friday passed a consent order with regard to its probe into possible violation of regulations by the Rel Infra and RNRL.

However,Anil Ambani,Chairman of both the companies clarified on Sunday that his group firms have settled the Sebi probe voluntarily and claimed that the regulator has not imposed any ban on participation in the capital market.

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The NSE 50-share Nifty closed flat at 5,654.75 points,from 5,654.55 in the previous session.

In last two trading sessions,Sensex had tumbled 673.66 points or 3.45 per cent,and Nifty by 208.70 or 3.56 per cent.

According to market participants,rise in petrol prices last weekend kept the market under pressure,expecting further rise in inflation which might compel RBI to hike key policy rates at its meeting later this month.

Foreign Institutional Investors FIIs continued to pull out funds,expecting aggressive rate hikes that may eventually hamper consumption as well as industrial growth.

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FIIs have remained net sellers for the last eight trading days,offloading shares worth Rs 4,442 crore,which includes provisional data of January 14.

However,Domestic funds tried to absorb selling,having injected over Rs 3,000 crore this month till January 14,as per stock exchanges figures.

On the global front,from Asia,Chinese shares led losses with a fall of 3.02 per cent today after the Chinese central bank raised their reserve requirements by another 0.5

percentage points. The key benchmark indices in Hong Kong,Singapore,South Korea and Taiwan also finished with losses.