Sensex, Nifty end flat; NTPC, IT shares shine; Reliance, Tata Steel slip

Closing Bell

The key benchmark indices witnessed yet another rangebound trading session as investors preferred to stay on the sidelines amid the year-end celebrative mood. IT and power shares were in demand, while index heavyweight Reliance Industries offsetted the possible gains.

The BSE benchmark index, the Sensex, opened 50-odd points lower at 57,755, but soon rebounded into the positive zone and touched a high of 58,010. The Sensex finally settled with a nominal loss of 12 points at 57,794 on the penultimate day of the year 2021.



The NSE Nifty was down 10 points at a close of 17,204.

Market Dashboard: Snapshot of key movers and shakers in trade today

"The Nifty traded in a narrow range throughout the day and ultimately posted a negative daily close. For the last couple of sessions, it is trading in a range-bound manner and has formed candles resembling Doji pattern on the daily chart. This shows exhaustion in the pullback. Formation of these candles below the junction of a falling trendline & the 40 DEMA suggests that the index is encountering a tough barrier on the higher side," said Gaurav Ratnaparkhi, Head of Technical Research, Sharekhan by BNP Paribas.

Adding: "In terms of the levels, 17300 is keeping the rise in check and can continue to pose as a key hurdle. Unless the level of 17300 gets taken out on a closing basis, the Nifty is expected to take a dip in order to fill up a recent gap area of 17,161 – 17,112 with a potential to test 17,000 on the downside."

Stocks in action

Index heavyweight Reliance was down over 2 per cent on the BSE, followed by Bajaj twins, ITC, Sun Pharma, M&M, Kotak Bank and SBI Bank.

Further, shares of footwear companies such as Relaxo, Metro Brands, Liberty shoes were trading higher. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will chair the 46th meeting of the Goods and Service Tax Council meeting in New Delhi on Friday, December 31. The agenda of the meeting will be to discuss the inverted duty structure of certain sectors including footwear and textiles and some pharma products. READ MORE.

Sectorally, metals, realty, PSU banks, Auto indices were sharply down, trading 0.8-1.5 per cent lower on the NSE.

In the broader market, the BSE MidCap remained an underperformer, down 0.25 per cent. Pharma midcaps, however, such as Alkem Labs, Ipca Labs, Glenmark, and GSK were trading 1-4 per cent higher, limiting the index's fall.

The BSE SmallCap index held onto its gains and was 0.4 per cent up. Goa Carbon( up 20 per cent), Rane (up 18 per cent), CyberTech, Nureca, (up 15 per cent each) and Graphite (up 14 per cent) were leading the gains.

Further, the shares of NTPC were trading with steady gains of near 2 per cent after the company announced its plan to hive-off stake in its newly formed formed renewable energy arm. The stock touched a high of Rs 125.95, and was quoted at Rs 125.20 - up 1.7 per cent as of 12:45 am on the BSE. READ MORE.

European markets: European indices are likely to open mostly higher as holiday-thinned trading continued in the region.The German DAX is set to rise by 18 points to 15,856 and the French CAC by 10 points to 7,163, but the U.K.’s FTSE is expected to drop 3 points to 7,413.

Global investors are looking for a Santa Claus rally to close out a year of solid returns. The FTSE and the DAX are on track to see gains of 15 per cent for this year, while the French CAC is close to a 30 per cent gain.

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Among the Sensex-30 shares, heavyweight Reliance was down 0.6 per cent. Financial stocks including Kotak Bank, Bajaj twins, ICICI Bank, SBI Bank, Axis Bank were in the red, down 0.1-1 per cent.

IT stocks were outperforming in trades on hopes of strong earings show for the December quarter. The BSE IT index hit a new all-time high at 37,870, and was up a per cent at 37,814, as against a 0.2 per cent rise on the BSE Sensex. READ MORE.

Further, the shares of Kalpataru Power Transmission (KPTL), a leading global EPC player in the power and infrastructure contracting sector, surged 7.2 per cent in intraday trades on the BSE to a high of Rs 382 on Thursday after the company announced large order wins. READ MORE.

Asian markets

Shares in Asia-Pacific were mostly higher in Thursday trade after gains overnight on Wall Street led to a record close for both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index advanced 0.21 per cent by the afternoon.

Mainland Chinese stocks were also higher, with the Shanghai composite up about 0.8 per cent and the Shenzhen component gaining 1.19 per cent.

Elsewhere, the Nikkei 225 in Japan fell 0.28 per cent while the Topix index declined 0.15 per cent. South Korea’s Kospi dropped 0.47 per cent.

Meanwhile, benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty were around 0.2 per cent higher after mildly recouping early morning losses.

On the BSE MidCap index, RBL Bank was down 8 per cent, while Aditya Birla Fashion, IDFC First Bank, Cholamandalam Investment, L&T Finance Holdings, Shriram Transport Finance, Canara Bank, Concor, Oberoi Realty and Honeywell Automation were down 1.4-3 per cent.

LIVE market updates: The headline indices opened on a quite note for a second day amid slow investor participation and concerns around the omicron variant. The BSE Sensex was nearly 50 points lower at 57,755, while the Nifty50 was testing the 17,200-mark.

In the broader markets, the BSE MidCap was 0.1 per cent lower dragged by RBL Bank, Oberoi Realty, Shriram Transport Finance, Godrej Properties, Indian Hotels, Lodha, JSW Energy, IRCTC, down 1-3 per cent.

The BSE SmallCap index was, however, in the green zone, up 0.3 per cent.

Among Sensex-30 constituents, PowerGrid, Wipro, Tata Steel,Titan, Bharti Airtel, HCL Technologies, Tech Mahindra, Dr Reddy's, Maruti, TCS, Infosys were the leading gainers, up 0.3-1 per cent. On the Nifty, Tata Consumer was the additional gainer.

On the flip side, Bajaj Twins, Sun Pharma, M&M, HDCF, Axis Bank, L&T, SBI, Reliance were the top losers, down 0.2-1.3 per cent.

Bajaj Auto, Here Motor, BPCL, Coal India, Adani Ports were the additonal losers on the NSE.

Among sectors, public sector banks and realty indices on the Nifty were down the most by up to 0.7 per cent.

Among individual shares, Hindustan Unilever and the entire FMCG pack will be in focus, as the distributors of the former plan to stop supply of its products in Maharashtra in a phased manner starting from January 1, at the same time demand for FMCG products in the December quarter has been weaker. READ MORE

Shares of Tata Group hospitality arm Indian Hotels will also be eyed as the company has acquired the balance 14.28 percent equity stake in ELEL Hotels and Investments.

Further, financial stocks may also be looked out for as the RBI, in its Financial Stability Report has said that banks’ asset quality may deteriorate further but lenders have enough capital to withstand a severe shock.

Bad loans of commercial banks in India may rise to between 8.1 and 9.5 per cent under varied degrees of stress by September 2022 from 6.9 per cent in September 2021, the central bank added.

Global cues

The US retailers backed by strong holiday season sales boosted the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 to a record high. Dow was up for the sixth straight trading session, up 0.3 per cent on Wednesday. The S&P 500 advanced 0.1 per cent, while the Nasdaq slipped 0.1 per cent.

Oil prices rose on Wednesday after US inventories fell, thus offsetting demand concerns from Omicron fears. Brent Crude gained 0.4 per cent at $79.23 a barrel, and WTI Crude rose 0.8 per cent to $76.56 a barrel.

Markets in Asia this morning had opened on a quiet note. Hang Seng, Shanghai Composite, Kospi and Taiwan were up 0.0 - 0.3 per cent each. Nikkei and Straits Times were down 0.1 per cent each.