Sensex, Nifty End Flat; Yes Bank Falls Most In Over Six Weeks

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 Indexes came off intraday low levels to end on a flat note as losses in Yes Bank, IndusInd Bank, Infosys, Reliance Industries and Tata Consultancy Services were offset by gains in HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC and Axis Bank. Earlier in the day, benchmarks opened lower and extended declines owing to weakness in financial, IT and metal sector shares, a day after official data showed consumer inflation rose to its highest level recorded in seven months. The Sensex fell as much as 295 points while the Nifty 50 Index dropped below 11,850.

The S&P BSE Sensex ended 0.04 per cent or 15 points lower at 39,741 and the NSE Nifty 50 Index rose 0.07 per cent or 8 points to close at 11,914.

Eleven of 19 sector gauges compiled by BSE ended lower led by the S&P BSE Information Technology Index's 0.9 per cent decline.

Metal, Oil & Gas, Auto, Healthcare, Energy and FMCG Indexes also declined between 0.2 and 0.7 per cent each.

On the other hand, S&P BSE Finance Index was top gainer, up 0.3 per cent.

Mid- and small-cap shares also witnessed selling pressure as the S&P BSE MidCap Index fell 0.3 per cent and the S&P BSE SmallCap Index declined 0.5 per cent.

Yes Bank was top loser in the Nifty 50 basket of shares. The stock slumped 13 per cent, the most in over six weeks, to close at Rs 116.60 on the back of heavy volumes. As many as 1.42 crore shares changed hands on the BSE compared with an average of 49.67 lakh shares traded daily in the past two weeks. The stock came under selling pressure after UBS cut the bank's price target by nearly half and maintained "sell" rating on the stock.

IndusInd Bank, UPL, Indian Oil, Maruti Suzuki, ONGC, Bharti Infratel, HCL Technologies, Hero MotoCorp and TCS were also among the losers.

On the flipside, Indiabulls Housing Finance jumped 12 per cent to end at Rs 695 after a writ petition alleging financial misdeeds against the mortgage lender was withdrawn.

Zee Entertainment, Bharat Petroleum, Grasim Industries, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Power Grid, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Finance and Axis Bank were also among the gainers.

Among the individual shares, Jet Airways slumped 18 per cent to close near an all-time low after the National Stock Exchange said the carrier would soon no longer be traded in the derivatives market, while day-trading in the stock would also be barred, in a bid to curb speculative trading in the troubled company.

The overall market breadth was begative as 1,613 shares ended lower while 920 ended higher on the BSE.