Nifty snaps three-day fall, ends flat

Mumbai: NSE benchmark Nifty snapped its three-day losing streak by gaining 6 points on fresh buying in banks, energy, metal and infra sectors. On the contrary, pharma stocks was the worst performer.

The broader markets outperformed, following strong earnings. Investors focussed on SBI earnings and the outcome of GST Council meeting due tomorrow.

Globally, European stocks were mixed as investors monitored a slew of corporate earnings. Asian stocks were mixed after hovering in positive terrain earlier.

The NSE Nifty opened higher at 10,358.65 and moved in a range of 10,368.45 and 10,266.95 before ending at 10,308.95, marginally up 5.80 points, or 0.06 per cent from last close. It saw an intra-day movement of about 101.50 points. The broader market also recorded significant gain with Nifty midcap and smallcap indices rose by 1.19 per cent and 0.82 per cent, respectively.

Sector-wise, PSU bank fell by 1.55 per cent followed by energy 0.56 per cent, bank 0.42 per cent, metal 0.46 per cent, infra 0.38 per cent and private bank 0.33 per cent. While, pharma fell 0.62 per cent, media 0.10 per cent, auto 0.10 per cent, realty 0.10 per cent and FMCG 0.06 per cent.

Major index gainers were, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Asian Paints, ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Bosch Ltd, SBIN and Reliance. Losers included, ITC, Coal India, ONGC, Infratel, GAIL, Lupin, Bajaj Finance, HDFC, Cipla and Axis Bank. The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was in favour of gainers.

On the NSE, 976 stocks advanced, 748 declined and 73 remained unchanged. Total securities that hit their price bands were 164. Turnover in the cash segment fell to Rs 33,372.54 crore from Rs 35,160.73 crore on Wednesday.

A total of 14,685.47 lakh shares changed hands in 11,209,393 trades. The market capitalisation of listed firms on NSE stood at Rs 1,42,28,927.64 crore.