Sensex, Nifty end flat after fag-end selling

Participants are keeping an eye on the Winter Session of Parliament, which started today, and US fiscal policies to be followed by President-elect Donald Trump

Sensex gave up its initial gains and ended marginally lower, pulled down by consumer durables, healthcare and metal counters following a bout of fag-end profit booking, while the Nifty managed to close above the 8,100-mark.

Participants are keeping an eye on the Winter Session of Parliament, which started today, and US fiscal policies to be followed by President-elect Donald Trump.

Investors are still in a risk-off mode, taking cues from global markets that were on the back foot ahead of Fed Chair Janet Yellen's testimony on Thursday.

“The market rebounded as investors used the advantage of a drop in valuation while the selling at higher levels pulled back the market to close flat," said Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.

Sensex started off on a strong footing and advanced to a high of 26,621.40. However, it succumbed to profit-booking at higher levels, falling to 26,239.21, before settling 5.94 points or 0.02 per cent lower at 26,298.69.

The gauge had lost 1,213.05 points in previous two sessions to touch a nearly six-month low after fears of acute cash crunch arising out of demonetisation unnerved investors amid capital outflows by foreign funds.

NSE Nifty, however, managed to close in the positive zone with a small gain of 3.15 points, or 0.04 per cent, at 8,111.60 after shuttling between 8,210.05 and 8,089.40.

However, easing inflation numbers, both WPI and CPI, offering more room to RBI to lower rate gave investors some level of comfort.

Rupee remained on a weak wicket against the dollar, losing 20 paise to close at 67.94.

The BSE Mid-Cap index provisionally rose 0.56 per cent, while the small-cap index gained 0.05 per cent.

Major losers included ITC (2.94 per cent), Dr Reddy's (2.89 per cent), Cipla (2.55 per cent), Lupin (2.27 per cent) and Sun Pharma (2.13 per cent).

Consumer durables fell by 1.97 per cent, followed by healthcare (1.34 per cent), metal (1.07 per cent) and bankex (0.96 per cent).

Meanwhile, foreign funds sold shares worth a net Rs 2,353.82 crore yesterday, as per provisional data released by the stock exchanges.

Overseas, most Asian stocks ended higher tracking overnight gains in US markets, as energy shares climbed on the back of rising crude oil prices.

Key indices in Asia like Japan, South Korea and Taiwan rose by 0.35 per cent to 1.10 per cent while indices in Hong Kong, China and Singapore fell by 0.06 per cent to 0.19 per cent.

European markets were trading lower in afternoon trade as key indices in France, Germany and UK moved down by 0.19 per cent to 0.31 per cent.

Retail inflation eased to a 14-month low of 4.20 per cent while the one based on wholesale prices or WPI fell for the second month to 3.39 per cent in October.

A total of 17 scrips in the 30-share Sensex ended lower, while 13 closed higher.

Asian Paints rose by 5.12 per cent, followed by TCS (3.21 per cent), Maruti (2.91 per cent), HDFC (2.51 per cent), Bharti Airtel (2.20 per cent), Power Grid (1.93 per cent), Infosys (1.66 per cent) and Bajaj Auto (1.36 per cent).

Among the sectoral indices, Teck rose by 1.78 per cent, IT by 1.76 per cent, auto 0.98 per cent, power 0.29 per cent and utilities by 0.24 per cent.

Market breadth remained negative as 1,553 shares ended lower, 1,048 closed higher while 154 ruled steady.

Total turnover on BSE dropped sharply to Rs 4,302.99 crore from Rs 6,529.98 crore on Tuesday.