Mumbai: Noting a mixed trend in the global markets, the key Indian equity indices ended their volatile trade on Tuesday on a flat note.
Although the indices had opened in the red, they pared their losses around an hour into the trade, with the BSE Sensex gaining over 100 points by the afternoon session.
By the end of the day’s trade, the indices ended flat, with minor gains, noting mixed global cues — weak Asian markets and positive Europeran markets.
Depreciation in the Indian rupee also eroded investor sentiments during the day, analysts said.
Index-wise, the wider Nifty50 of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed at 10,769.15 points, up 6.70 points or 0.06 per cent from the previous close of 10,762.45 points.
Similarly, the barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE, which had opened at 35,355.72 points, closed at 35,490.04 points — up 19.69 points or 0.06 per cent — from its previous session’s close of 35,470.35 points.
The Sensex touched an intra-day high of 35,616.64 and a low of 35,338.09 points. The BSE market breadth, however, was bearish so far with 1,786 declines and 850 advances.
“Sensex and Nifty closed marginally higher on Tuesday, amid mixed sentiment in global equity markets. European stocks edged higher despite a sell-off in Asian markets amid escalating trade tensions between the US and other major economies,” said Tradebulls Director and Chief Operating Officer Dhruv Desai.
HDFC Securities’ Head of Retail Research, Deepak Jasani told IANS: “Markets ended flat on Tuesday after a volatile intra-day session that saw the Nifty swinging from positive to negative territory several times during the day.”
On the currency front, the Indian rupee weakened by 12 paise against the US dollar to 68.25, from its previous close of 68.13 per greenback.
Investment-wise, provisional data with exchanges showed that foreign institutional investors sold scrip worth Rs 538.40 crore while the domestic institutional investors bought stocks worth Rs 238.05 crore.
Sector-wise, the S&P BSE consumer durables index rose by 107.77 points, the FMCG stocks were up 85.13 and the IT stocks ended 83.38 points higher from its previous close.
On the other hand, S&P BSE auto index fell by 117.02 points, the healthcare index was down 83.02 points and the capital goods index ended lower by 59.56 points.
Stock-wise, the major gainers on the Sensex were Coal India, up 2.10 per cent at Rs 264.50; Maruti Suzuki, up 1.80 per cent at Rs 8,950.10; Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), up 1.77 per cent at Rs 1,852.70; Bharti Airtel, up 1.75 per cent at Rs 380.15; and Asian Paints, up 1.57 per cent at Rs 1,273.70 per share.
The top losers were Tata Motors, down 4.31 per cent at Rs 277.35; Reliance Industries, down 2.48 per cent at Rs 978.70; Power Grid, down 1.82 per cent at Rs 191.45, Tata Motors (DVR), down 1.69 per cent at Rs 165.90; and Tata Steel, down 1.64 per cent at Rs 549.35 per share.
IANS