Key indices pare early gains, end flat

New Delhi: Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty closed higher for the third session in a row on Tuesday, following gains in telecom, tech and consumer durable shares amid a firm trend in the global markets. However, rising global crude prices and renewed foreign capital outflows amid geopolitical tensions restricted the markets’ appreciation bias, traders said.

After rallying over 400 points, the 30-share BSE Sensex ended 89.83 points or 0.12 per cent higher at 73,738.45. During the session, it jumped 411.27 points or 0.55 per cent to 74,059.89. Trimming most of its early gains, the NSE Nifty ended 31.60 points or 0.14 per cent up at 22,368. During the day, it climbed 111.15 points or 0.49 per cent to 22,447.55.

“The domestic market exhibited a range-bound performance, tracking positive global cues with sustained outperformance of the broader market. While tensions between Iran and Israel were perceived to have limited escalation, the uptick in crude prices suggests investors’ reassessing the risks. With higher levels of the dollar index and US bond yields, FIIs are expected to continue with outflows, but inflows from DIIs are supporting the recovery,” said Vinod Nair, head (research), Geojit Financial Services.

In the broader market, the BSE smallcap gauge jumped 1.05 per cent, and the midcap index climbed 0.52 per cent. Among the indices, telecommunication zoomed 4.27 per cent, realty climbed 2.42 per cent, teck (1.23 per cent), utilities (0.95 per cent), consumer durables (0.82 per cent), consumer discretionary (0.77 per cent) and commodities (0.52 per cent). Oil & Gas, metal and energy were the laggards.

Heavy selling pressure in index heavyweight Reliance Industries, mainly due to profit booking, dragged market indices lower. Reliance lost over one per cent to end at Rs2,918.50 per scrip. From the Sensex basket, Bharti Airtel, Nestle, Maruti, Tata Motors, HCL Technologies, NTPC, Asian Paints and State Bank of India were the major gainers.