Sensex, Nifty End Flat; IT, Auto Shares Gain, Banking Stocks Fall

The Indian equity benchmarks ended Tuesday's session on a flat note as investors booked profits in banking and financial services shares after a sharp rally in the previous session. However, gains in IT and auto shares provided support to the benchmarks. Earlier in the day, the Sensex surged as much as 483 points to hit record high of 53,057.11 and Nifty 50 index touched an intraday high of 15,895.75 as markets cheered record daily surge in COVID-19 vaccinations on Monday.

The Sensex ended 14 points higher at 52,588 and Nifty 50 index advanced 26 points to close at 15,773.

India administered a record 83 lakh vaccine doses on Monday under a campaign to inoculate all adults for free. Experts have said widespread vaccination remains one of the best tools to avoid the kind of devastation India saw during its second wave of the pandemic.

Six of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended higher led by the Nifty Auto index's over 1 per cent gain. IT and Metal shares also witnessed buying interest.

On the other hand, Nifty Bank, Financial Services, FMCG, Private Bank and Realty indices closed lower.

Mid- and small-cap shares ended on a mixed note as Nifty Midcap 100 index rose 0.1 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index rose 0.5 per cent.

Maruti Suzuki was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 5.2 per cent to close at Rs 7,257 a day after it undertook car price hikes citing rising input costs.

UPL, Shree Cements, Wipro, SBI Life, Larsen & Toubro, Tata Consumer Products, Divis Labs, Adani Ports, UltraTech Cement, Tata Consultancy Services and Indian Oil were also among the gainers.

On the flipside, Asian Paints, Bajaj Finance, Nestle India, Hindustan Unilever, IndusInd Bank, Tech Mahindra, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Industries were among the losers.

The overall market breadth was positive as 2,026 shares ended higher while 1,212 closed lower on the BSE.