Mumbai: Market consolidation continued on Thursday as the Sensex closed high after two sessions of fall, ahead of the goods and service tax (GST) council meet amid a good set of earnings from Tata Motors. Expectations that the GST Council may offer relief to some sectors through reduction in tax rates at its meeting on Friday supported the rebound, traders said.
The Sensex, which had lost 512.38 points in the previous two sessions, edged up 32.12 points, or 0.10%, to close at 33,250.93 after trading between 33,463.80 and 33,111.54. During the day, the benchmark swung almost 350 points (both sides). The NSE Nifty ended flat, up 5.80 points, or 0.06%, at 10,308.95. Intra-day, it touched a high of 10,368.45 and a low of 10,266.95.
“Renewed buying in consumer durables restricted further fall in the market on expectations of reducing taxes for products coming under 28% GST tax bracket. Albeit, investors are watchful ahead of key domestic macros CPI inflation and IIP data and global oil price fluctuation to get the direction,” said Vinod Nair, head of research, Geojit Financial Services.
Bharti Airtel was the top gainer by surging 2.39% to Rs507, followed by Asian Paints (2.08%) at Rs1,195.25. Tata Motors ended up 0.36% at Rs440.30 after the company reported a three-fold jump in consolidated profit for the quarter to September.
ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, Reliance Industries, Hindustan Unilever, SBI, NTPC, Dr Reddy’s, Adani Ports, Bajaj Auto, Wipro, Infosys and TCS posted moderate to modest gains. However, ITC, Coal India, ONGC, Lupin, HDFC, Cipla, Axis Bank, Hero MotoCorp and Kotak Bank remained under pressure, down up to 2%.
While consumer durables advanced the most by 3.23%, followed by power, banking, metal and capital goods, healthcare, auto and FMCG ended in the red. Broader markets put up somewhat a better show, with BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices jumping up to 0.98%.
Domestic institutional investors purchased shares worth a net Rs3,038.16 crore while foreign portfolio investors sold equities worth a net Rs3,838.27 crore on Wednesday, provisional data from stock exchanges showed.