Some selling pressure in the late trade saw the Sensex ending below 17K on Wednesday. In a rangebound session, the benchmark index ended 51 points lower at 16,998, after trading in a narrow range of 16,958 and 17,098.
On the NSE, Nifty ended almost flat at 5,054, down 7 points.
The breadth in the broader markets on the BSE was however positive, with gainers edging out decliners by 1,599 to 1,166 while 78 stocks remained unchanged.
Trading in today’s session followed a similar trend as that of yesterday’s, with investors showing very little conviction. Sandeep Bhardawaj, CEO & head equity strategy at Tower Capital, said the conviction is likely to remain low till the year-end but the markets would continue to edge higher. “It may reach 5200 by the year-end. The flood of liquidity from overseas will overwhelm the shortage of liquidity in domestic market,” he said.
“The markets are consolidating and they are likely to remain range bound for some more time. Investors to take a stock specific approach at this stage,” said Hiten Gala, Senior Manager- Advisory, Sharekhan.
Metal and IT stocks posted some gains today. The BSE metal index rose 1.2 per cent led by gains in Ispat Industries and JSW Steel. The stocks rose over 4 per cent each. JSW Steel ended up 4 per cent at Rs 965. The company is in talks to sell a 7-11 per cent stake to Japan’s Nippon Steel, sources told NDTV.
The IT index on the BSE was up 0.7 per cent. Infosys rose 1.5 per cent to Rs 2,433.
Shipping stocks also surged today after the Baltic Dry Index rose to new highs. Essar Shipping jumped 11.5 per cent and Mercator Lines was also up 7.8 per cent.
Oil & gas and banking stocks ended lower today. The BSE bankex slid 0.7 per cent and the oil & gas index was down 0.8 per cent. In the banking space, Bank of Baroda, Kotak Mahindra and ICICI Bank fell over 1.4 per cent each.
In the Sensex pack, Tata Motors was the top gainer. The stock was up 3.1 per cent at Rs 646. Tata Steel, ITC and Infosys gained over 1.5 per cent each.
Reliance Infra, however, was the biggest loser. The stock shed 3.2 per cent to finish at Rs 1,150. L&T, ICICI Bank and RIL lost over 1.4 per cent.
Asian stocks were mixed on Wednesday amid investor caution following the recent advance in the region's markets.European markets were modestly up in early trades.