Domestic equity benchmarks recovered much of their intraday losses to close barely below the flatline amid volatile trade on Thursday.
The Sensex lost 27.4 points to end at 79,897.3 while the Nifty50 settled at 24,316, down 8.5 points for the day. Analysts awaited the onset of the earnings season with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) – the country’s largest IT firm – scheduled to report its financial results for the April-June period later in the day.
The NSE Nifty edged down 8.50 points or 0.03 per cent to settle at 24,315.95. The broader index gyrated between a high of 24,402.65 and a low of 24,193.75 in day trade.
“The main indices are trading in a narrow range, struggling to justify its premium valuation ahead of the Q1 earnings season, which is forecast to be subdued,” Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services said.
Among Sensex shares, Bajaj Finance, Mahindra & Mahindra, Sun Pharma, Nestle, NTPC, Power Grid, NTPC, UltraTech Cement and Larsen & Toubro were the biggest laggards.
The prominent gainers were ITC, Tata Motors, Asian Paints and Titan.
In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong settled higher. European markets were trading in positive territory. US markets ended significantly higher on Wednesday.
