Markets remain flat

Markets remain flat
ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU

MUMBAI MAY 16: Share prices remained lacklustre in dull trading as most investors preferred to sit on the fence, unsure of the immediate direction of the market.

Institutional investors and leading local players adopted "wait and watch" attitude in view of likely upward revision at the federal rates in today's meeting, reflected into a lacklusture trading. Although, leading Asian markets like Tokyo and Singapore ended firmer and discounted the outcome of the UD Fed meet by reporting handsome gains in share prices, local bourses witnessed a cautious trading.

Sensex (BSE sensitive index) moved widely between 4247.19 and 4154.07 before closing at 4230.13 with small gain of 17.60 points compared to the previous level of 4212.13. The BSE-100 index gained 4.68 points to 2113.60 from the last level of 2108.92. The Nifty Index of the NSE closed 0.72 per cent or 9.30 points up at 1,308.55.

Operators said that "the concern is whether country's weightage will reduce and whether that will prompt foreign funds to cut their exposure to Indian shares". Morgan Stanley Capital International Inc (MSCI) executive director John Fildes said MSCI was continuing to look at the issue of changing the weighting methodology to a float-weighting system but that there was no move to do that on Wednesday.

Leading gainers on Tuesday were tobacco firm ITC by Rs 36 at 621, Dr.Reddy's Laboratories up Rs 106.75 at Rs 1,355, Ranbaxy Laboratories Rs 19.90 at Rs 544.90 and Satyam Computer Rs 74 at Rs 2,974. Infotech firms were mixed. Infosys Technologies was down Rs 40 at Rs 6,930, NIIT up Rs 18.50 at Rs 1,789, Wipro Rs 23.15 down at Rs 2,441 and Pentamedia Graphics Rs 10.70 down at Rs 468.20.