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Chennai, India (BBN) – The Sensex and Nifty ended nearly unchanged on Wednesday as caution set in ahead of a slew of corporate results this week, particularly banks, although a forecast for an average monsoon gave a leg-up to the market sentiment.
The government’s weather office had yesterday forecast a normal monsoon during the June-September period, which is expected to give a leg-up to the rural economy, reports The Hindu Business Line.
The broader NSE index ended down 1.65 points or 0.02 per cent at 9,103.50, while the benchmark BSE index closed 17.47 points or 0.06 per cent higher at 29,336.57.
Among BSE sectoral indices, power index gained the most by 2.04 per cent, followed by infrastructure 1.58 per cent, realty 1.48 per cent and metal 0.56 per cent. On the other hand, banking index was down 0.53 per cent, IT 0.34 per cent, healthcare 0.22 per cent and TECk 0.12 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were Power Grid (+4.35%), Adani Ports (+1.88%), NTPC (+1.86%), Coal India (+1.24%) and Maruti (+1.02%), while the major losers were State Bank of India (-2.05%), Dr Reddy’s (-0.73%), ICICI Bank (-0.72%), HUL (-0.67%) and ONGC (-0.66%).
GLOBAL MARKETS
Sterling stole the show in Asia on Wednesday amid speculation Britain’s surprise decision to call a snap election could ultimately deliver a more market-friendly outcome in its divorce from the European Union.
Equities were largely sidelined with MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan off 0.1 per cent to the lowest since mid-March.
The S&P 500 fell for the fourth time in five sessions on Tuesday, weighed down by a drop in Goldman Sachs and Johnson & Johnson following their quarterly results, while geopolitical tensions added to investor caution.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 113.64 points, or 0.55 per cent, to 20,523.28, the S&P 500 lost 6.83 points, or 0.29 per cent, to 2,342.18 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 7.32 points, or 0.12 per cent, to 5,849.47.
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