Sensex almost unchanged; realty index jumps 11%

MUMBAI: The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex closed almost unchanged on Friday after a highly volatile trading day but the index of realty shares beat the bellwether index by scoring an impressive 10.57 per cent gain amid strong anticipation of cut in interest rates.
    
Real estate majors DLF, Unitech, India Bull Real Estate and HDIL soared on sustained buying support.
    
This is the second straight surge in the realty index which in the last two days have advanced by nearly 18 per cent. The real estate shares have been on a winning streak throughout the week except for Wednesday when it lost 7.36 per cent.
    
After dipping below the 10,000 level in the opening trade, the BSE barometer swung wildly on intermittent bouts of selling and buying. Finally, it settled the day at 10,099.91, up a marginal 23.48 points.

On Thursday, the Sensex had closed above the crucial 10,000-point level for the first time in six weeks.
    
The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty also rose on Friday by 16.75 points at 3077.50.
    
Throughout the day, the BSE barometer oscillated between positive and negative terrain. The Planning Commission's comment this afternoon that the country's economy will need stimulus package in next fiscal as well helped the sentiment.
   
Besides, Bank of Japan followed the US Fed Reserve and cut the rates to 0.10 per cent which also had a positive impact.
    
Marketmen said there was, however, profit-booking at every rise by institutional investors as analysts have said that there would a a strong resistance between 10,000 and 10,500 levels.
    
Domestic Institutional Investors were net sellers to the tune of Rs 355.99 crore while Foreign Institutional Investors sold shares worth Rs 33.17 crore in equity on December 18, as per the provisional data.

Asian indices were narrowly mixed except for a sharp fall of 2.39 per cent in the Hong Kong's Hang Seng, while European markets were trading lower by more than one per cent.
    
Besides, realty, some of the auto, consumer durable and pharma shares also attracted good buying support.
    
Realty major DLF soared 10.80 per cent on hectic buying support.
    
The market breadth remained positive with 1,482 counters gaining against 1,033 losing ground at close on the BSE.
   
Major gainers also included Jaiprakash Associates (6.0 per cent), Sterlite Ind (3.62 per cent), Hindustan Unilever (3.61 per cent), Tata Motors (3.28 per cent), Reliance Infra (3.08 per cent) and Tata Steel (3.04 per cent).
    
However, Satyam Computers lost 3.87 per cent, ONGC 3.23 per cent, ACC 2.33 per cent and HDFC 1.72 per cent.
    
The trading volume was slightly lower at Rs 5,066.77 crore from Rs 5,095.54 crore on Thursday. RIL remained the top traded share with the highest turnover of Rs 357.62 crore followed by DLF (Rs 298.38 crore), Reliance Capital (Rs 272.54 crore), HDIL (Rs 202.16 crore) and SBI (Rs 195.71 crore).