Sensex, Nifty End On Flat Note; IT Shares Outperform

The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes ended little changed on Friday as gains in Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Hindustan Unilever, State Bank of India and Infosys were offset with losses in HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, HDFC, Asian Paints and ITC. For most part of the day, equity benchmarks traded in a range bound manner with a flat bias. The Sensex moved in a band of 267 points and Nifty touched an intraday high of 11,493.50 and low of 11,419.90.

The Sensex ended 14 points higher at 38,855 and Nifty 50 index advanced 15 points to close at 11,464.

Investors are on sidelines as they assess talks between Foreign Minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow to de-escalate border tensions, analysts said.

The two ministers met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) meeting. The meeting comes nearly a week after the Defence Ministers of the two countries - Rajnath Singh and Wei Fenghi - met in Moscow.

Eight of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty Information Technology index's 1.2 per cent gain. FMCG, metal, PSU banking and real estate shares also witnessed buying interest. Auto shares were largely flat despite the passenger vehicle sales rising 14.16 per cent in August compared with the corresponding period a year ago, industry body Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said on Friday.

On the other hand, media, financial services and private banking shares witnessed selling pressure.

Mid- and small-cap shares witnessed a mild buying interest as the Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.6 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index advanced 0.26 per cent.

Wipro was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 3 per cent to Rs 293. State Bank of India, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, Hero MotoCorp, Britannia Industries, UPL, Hindustan Unilever, Bajaj Finance, Bharti Infratel and Kotak Mahindra Bank also rose between 1-2.8 per cent.

On the flipside, Zee Entertainment, IndusInd Bank, Power Grid, BPCL, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, Coal India, Asian Paints, Eicher Motors and UltraTech Cement were among the losers.

The overall market breadth was marginally positive as 1,410 shares ended higher while 1,273 closed lower on the BSE.