Mkts end flat as profit booking pares early gains

Mumbai: Stock markets’ three-day winning run paused on Thursday with benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty closing slightly higher as volatile global sentiment triggered profit-booking, aiding the withdrawal momentum for foreign capital. After oscillating between gains and losses during the day, the 30-share BSE barometer Sensex ended with a gain of 12.16 points, or 0.01 per cent, at 84,478.67. During the session, it touched a high of 84,919.43 and a low of 84,253.05. The broader NSE Nifty closed the session in green with just 3.35 points, or 0.01 per cent, higher at 25,879.15.

From the Sensex pack, Asian Paints, ICICI Bank, PowerGrid, Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Finserv, Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharmaceuticals, Maruti Suzuki India, Axis Bank, UltraTech Cement and HCL Technologies were the only gainers.

On the other hand, Eternal, Tata Motors' commercial vehicles arm, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, Bharat Electronics Ltd, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles, Trent, Tata Consultancy Services, Hindustan Unilever, and Infosys were among the laggards.

“National equities closed flat after a positive session, as profit-booking erased early gains despite optimistic global and domestic cues. Sentiment was buoyed by Trump signing a short-term funding bill to end the US government shutdown and hopes of tariff relief for India,” said Vinod Nair, head (research), Geojit Investments Ltd.

The BSE Midcap gauge fell 0.34 per cent and smallcap closed 0.30 per cent lower.

“Sectorally, the trend remained mixed -- realty, pharma, and metal ended higher, while FMCG and IT witnessed mild pressure. Meanwhile, the broader markets also saw profit-booking, with both midcap and smallcap indices declining by around half a per cent,” added Ajit Mishra, sr V-P (research), Religare Broking Ltd.

Nair further stated that “the record-low October inflation prints reinforced expectations of an interest rate cut by RBI, making rate-sensitive sectors like metals and realty attractive to investors. However, amidst continued outflows from FII and a weak rupee, profit-booking emerged at elevated levels ahead of the Bihar election results, which left the benchmark indices largely unchanged by the close.”

Among the sectoral indices, Consumer Durables climbed by 0.86 per cent, Telecommunication by 0.70 per cent, Realty by 0.43 per cent, Metal by 0.36 per cent, Utilities by 0.30 per cent, Services by 0.26 per cent, and Bankex by 0.13 per cent. On the other hand, Capital Goods, Auto, FMCG, Consumer Discretionary, Oil & Gas, Energy, Healthcare, Industries, IT, Power and Teck closed lower. A total of 2,450 stocks declined while 1,773 advanced and 144 remain unchanged on the BSE.