Stock markets end with marginal gains amid volatile trade, foreign fund outflows

Mumbai: Stock markets' three-day rally fizzled out with benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ending on a flat note amid a choppy trade on Thursday as lacklusture sentiment across global equity markets fuelled the outflow of foreign capital.

After oscillating between gains and losses during the day, the 30-share BSE barometer Sensex ended with a slight 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," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Investments Ltd, said.

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," he added.

In Asian markets, Shanghai's SSE Composite Index, Hong Kong's Hang Seng, Japan's Nikkei 225 benchmark and South Korea's Kospi ended higher.

Markets in Europe were trading largely lower. The US markets finished higher in overnight deals on Wednesday.

Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, declined 0.29 per cent to USD 62.53 per barrel.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors remained net sellers for the third day in a row and offloaded equities worth Rs 1,750.03 crore on Wednesday. Domestic institutional investors sustained their buying spree and picked up of stocks worth Rs 5,127.12 crore, according to exchange data.

On Wednesday, the BSE Sensex rallied 595.19 points to settle at 84,466.51. The 50-share NSE Nifty climbed 180.85 points to close at 25,875.80.