Equity indices erase early gains to end flat on profit-booking in RIL, infra stocks

Equity benchmark indices wiped out early gains and ended flat on Wednesday due to heavy selling in Reliance Industries and infrastructure stocks.

Equity benchmark indices wiped out early gains and ended flat on Wednesday due to heavy selling in Reliance Industries and infrastructure stocks. The day saw capping of smart gains in IT stocks. At the closing bell, the BSE S&P Sensex was up by 19 points or 0.05 per cent at 36,052 while the Nifty 50 edged higher by 11 points or 0.1 per cent at 10,618.

Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange were mixed with Nifty IT up by 5.2 per cent. Among stocks, Reliance Industries closed 3.9 per cent lower at Rs 1,842.35 per share after its annual general meeting. Bharti Airtel fell by 3.6 per cent and closed the day at Rs 568 per unit while Bharti Infratel was down by over 2 per cent.

Infrastructure and auto stock also suffered losses with GAIL losing by 2 per cent, ONGC by 1.3 per cent and Adani Ports by 1.7 per cent. Tata Motors and Eicher Motors dropped by 1.6 per cent and 1.3 per cent respectively. However, IT software major Wipro jumped by 16.9 per cent to Rs 263 per share after Q1 numbers. The company registered a net profit of Rs 2,390 crore in the latest quarter compared to a profit of Rs 2,387 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Infosys was up by 6.4 per cent, HCL Technologies by 4.6 per cent, Tech Mahindra by 2.8 per cent and Tata Consultancy Services by 2.7 per cent. The other prominent gainers were Axis Bank, Hero MotoCorp, Hindustan Lever and ITC.

Meanwhile, Asian markets were in the green as optimism about a coronavirus vaccine bolstered risk appetite. Moderna Inc's experimental vaccine for Covid-19 showed it was safe and provoked immune responses in all 45 healthy volunteers in an ongoing early-stage study. Japan's Nikkei added 1.59 per cent to the highest since June 10. South Korea's Kospi was up by 0.84 per cent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng crawled up by 0.01 per cent.

Investors also remained hopeful that EU leaders may agree on stimulus and deepening fiscal integration at a summit later this week. (ANI)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)