Mkts end flat; FIIs pump in Rs 11Kcr since Budget

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The benchmark Nifty closed on a flat note for the seventh consecutive session, especially after three days rally on the occasion of Budget 2010-11. It remained in a narrow range of about 70 points and the Sensex about 200 points in these days.

Lack of global cues and lower participation from retail investors kept the markets in that range. Good support from FIIs helped the indices, due to which markets did not see any profit booking barring stock specific action. FIIs had been net buyers to the tune of Rs 11,480 crore from February 26, a Budget Day to March 12 (including provisional data of March 12).

Jagdish Malkani, Country Head, Taib India, said the market is not likely to stretch this tight range for few more days. "This is some amount of digestion, we have had a breathtaking inflow of foreign institutional investors (FII) money after February 26. So, some of that is being digested. But money is still pouring in -- some amount of domestic institutional investor (DII) money is going out the other way. Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) was probably the cleverest investors. It invested in the carnage and now is booking profits. March is also when corporate pay tax. So, there is nothing to be perturbed about at the moment."

The 30-share BSE Sensex closed at 17166.62, down 1.34 points while the 50-share NSE Nifty rose just 3.6 points to 5137. The broader indices underperformed the benchmark indices; the BSE Midcap Index was down 0.23% and Smallcap down 0.45%.

Even the good Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data for the month of January 2010 could not able to become a trigger for the markets. IIP grew 16.7% as against 1% in January 2009. All the sectors, except consumer non-durables, showed good growth.