Mumbai: Equities ended flat in thin trade on Tuesday, with benchmark Sensex finishing below the 30,000-mark on lack of positive cues amid a mixed trend overseas.
The 30-share index opened in green and advanced to 30,017.82, but later succumbed to profit-booking to hit the day’s low of 29,911.44. It finally ended at 29,933.25, up 7.10 points, or 0.02%.
The broader Nifty, however, defended the psychologically- key 9,300-level. It ended the day at 9,316.85, up 2.80 points, or 0.03%, after shuttling between 9,338.95 and 9,307.70 Investors preferred to book profits and waited for the next trigger post French elections, brokers said.
“Good corporate results, government’s reforms and good domestic inflows are maintaining buoyancy in the market. “But lack of confidence is leading to profit booking, which is evident at the higher level. Weaknesses in rupee and further selling from FIIs can be important factors going ahead,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.
Foreign portfolio investors continued their selling spree and offloaded stocks worth Rs 542.47 crore on Monday, as per provisional data.
It was a mixed bag for Asian equities, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rising 1.27% and Shanghai Composite Index gaining 0.06%. Japan’s Nikkei, however, shed 0.26%.
European stock markets were mostly higher, with UK’s FTSE, France’s CAC and Germany’s DAX up by up to 0.51%. Back home, banking stocks erased the gains of their recent rally as participants pocketed profits at higher levels.
In the cement space, Ambuja Cements and ACC, which had been rising in the previous few sessions on talks of a merger, fell by up to 1.27%. However, the broader markets outperformed the Sensex, with the small-cap index rising 0.53% and the mid-cap index gaining 0.19%. L&T was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rising 2%, followed by Adani Ports (1.56%).
Other major gainers were Wipro (1.21%), Axis Bank (1.21%), Tata Motors (0.82%), GAIL (0.73%), RIL (0.65%), M&M (0.51%), TCS (0.46%), NTPC (0.44%), Tata Steel (0.34%), and Sun Pharma (0.27%).
Shares of Hero MotoCorp, Lupin, SBI, Power Grid, ICICI Bank, HDFC Ltd, Dr Reddy’s and ITC dropped by up to 3.07%. Bharti Airtel fell 1.75% as investors trimmed their positions ahead of its results. Among BSE sectoral and industry indices, capital market rose 1.90%, industrials 1.27%, power 0.99%, metal 0.76%, oil&gas 0.76%, energy 0.61% and realty 0.52%.
However, telecom fell 0.76%, consumer durables 0.63%, bankex 0.19%, finance 0.18% and healthcare 0.11%.
Market breadth remained positive as 1,469 stocks ended higher, 1,355 closed with losses while 174 ruled steady. The total turnover on BSE amounted to Rs 3,953.75 crore, higher than Rs 3,208.30 crore registered during the previous trading session.