Sensex, Nifty End Little Changed; IT Stocks Fall, Realty Shares Gain

Domestic equity benchmarks ended today's volatile session on a flat note as gains in IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC and NTPC were offset by losses in ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries, Power Grid and HDFC Bank. The S&P BSE Sensex ended 2.72 points or 0.01 per cent higher at 37,754.89 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index rose 1.55 points or 0.01 per cent to shut shop at 11,343.25. Earlier in the day, Sensex and Nifty opened higher and Sensex rose as much as 156 points and NSE Nifty 50 Index climbed 42 points to hit intraday high of 11,383.

"After rallying from 10,585 levels some amount of profit booking in Nifty cannot be ruled out and some pressure due to weekly expiry of derivative contracts is also putting pressure," AK Prabhakar, head of research at IDBI Capital told NDTV over phone.

"However, a reversal in trend or indications of more downside in Nifty will emerge once it breaks below yesterday's low of 11,276," Mr Prabhakar added.

Ten of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE ended lower led by the S&P BSE Information Technology Index's 0.4 per cent decline. On the flipside, S&P BSE Realty Index was top gainer, up 2.1 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares also closed on a subdued note as the S&P BSE MidCap Index fell 0.26 per cent and the S&P BSE SmallCap Index rose 0.1 per cent.

NTPC was top gainer in the Nifty 50 basket fo shares, the stock rose 3.58 per cent to Rs 153.50. IndusInd Bank, Bharti Airtel, Yes Bank, Sun Pharma, Coal India, Grasim Industries and Indian Oil were also among the gainers.

On the other hand, HCL Technologies, Hero MotoCorp, UltraTech Cement, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank and UPL were among the losers.