Lacklustre start to Christmas week; Sensex ends 24 points up

Pre-holiday mood set in over the stock markets today, as the benchmark Sensex ended flat in a volatile trade despite hectic buying in blue chips like Hero Honda and Infosys Technologies.

Shying away from the 20,000-mark, the 30-share sensitive index of Bombay Stock Exchange ended at 19,888.88, up 24.03 points or 0.12% from previous close.

Intra-day, however, it hit a high of 20,006.16, breaching the psychological level, but could not sustain the momentum due to the cautious mood and selective buying in the market.

A similar pattern was witnessed in the National Stock Exchange's wide based Nifty which settled the day with a marginal gain of 1.70 points or 0.03% at 5,947.05.

Marketmen attributed the volatility on the street to cautious approach of the investors due to the pre-holiday mood ahead of Christmas and New Year.

"Dalal Street will get the clear direction only in the month of January as a pre-holiday mood prevails in the market, due to which there will be range-bound trading ahead of the Christmas holiday with the slowdown in the activity towards the December end,"Religare Securities Executive Vice-President Rajesh Jain said.

Brisk buying in the motorcycle giant Hero Honda failed to bring excitement to the lacklustre street. However, with a handsome gain of 17.99%, the scrip managed to offset some of the losses in the bellwether Sensex. Last week, Hero Group announced the acquisition of 26% stake of its Japanese partner Honda in the JV -- Hero Honda.

"The BSE Auto index zoomed as Hero Honda surged on more clarity from the management on the termination of JV with Honda. A lot of stock specific action was seen even as the overall market trend was rather subdued," IIFL head of Research Amar Ambani said.

Other auto majors including Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra & Mahindra also accelerated by 2.37% and 1.80% respectively.

IT counters too grabbed investors' attention with the bellwether Infosys advancing by 1.78% and TCS gaining 2.27%. Software major Wipro also witnessed a smart rise of 1.75%.

"Hopes of strong third quarter results led to the rally in the IT stocks for the third consecutive session," said an expert.

Of the 30 Sensex components, 17 ended the day on a subdued note with the top lenders SBI and HDFC Bank playing the major spoilt sports. While the former declined by 2.11%, the latter saw a plunge of 1.30%. ICICI Bank, however, bucked the trend by losing 0.44%.

Realty stocks also took a beating with Reliance Infrastructure slumping by 2.14% and DLF shedding 1.04%.

A decline of 2.26% and 1.67% was seen in telecom giants Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications.

Other Asian peers ended subdued amid reports of fresh tension between the South Korea and North Korea, with China's Shanghai slipping 1.14% and Japan's Nikkei down 0.85%.

European markets, however, were trading firm in the afternoon session.