Sensex, Nifty End Flat; Banks Gain, IT Shares Fall

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes ended on a flat note on Monday as gains in banking heavyweights like ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and State Bank of India were offset by losses in Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Maruti Suzuki and ITC. For most part of the day, the benchmarks traded lower however, buying in banking shares which pushed the banking sub-index - Nifty Bank index above 31,000-mark, helped the Sensex and Nifty close with a positive bias.

The Sensex ended 21 points or 0.05 per cent higher at 40,345 and the NSE Nifty 50 index advanced 5 points to close at 11,913.

Six of 11 sector gauges compiled by National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty Media index's nearly 3 per cent gain.

Nifty Private Bank, Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Bank indexes also rose over 1 per cent each.

On the other hand, Nifty IT index was top loser, down 0.5 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares ended on a mixed note as the Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.6 per cent while the Nifty Smallcap 100 index ended on a flat note.

Zee Entertainment was top gainer in the Nifty 50 basket of shares, the stock rose 6.2 per cent to close at Rs 305.20. Yes Bank, Bharat Petroleum, GAIL India, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, IndusInd Bank, Bharti Infratel and Bajaj Finserv were also among the gainers.

On the flipside, Nestle India, Hero MotoCorp, Hindalco, Vedanta, Cipla and Eicher Motors were among the losers.

The overall market breadth was marginally positive as 902 shares ended higher while 890 closed lower on the NSE.