Sensex, Nifty Recover Right At The End, But Not Nearly Enough To Close With Gains

Indian equity benchmarks recovered right at the end of the trading session on Monday, rebounding somewhat from a weak start but not nearly enough to end with gains, stalling a three-day winning streak.

Even the little cheer may be short-lived as jitters were clear during the day, with trading patterns reflecting ginger and sceptical betting ahead of domestic and international inflation data later in the week, which will clarify the direction of the monetary policy path.

Financial markets have been whiplashed this year, and the minor gains at the end of the day may be a blip rather than a broader trend.

The 30-share BSE benchmark declined 86.61 points to end at 54,395.23. The broader NSE Nifty closed at 16,216, about 5 points lower.

From the Sensex pack, Bharti Airtel, TCS, HCL Technologies, Infosys, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro and Power Grid were the major laggards.

TCS fell nearly 5 per cent after its earnings for the first quarter failed to match market expectations.

The country's largest software exporter TCS on Friday reported a 5.2 per cent rise in June quarter net profit to Rs 9,478 crore, restricted by the impact of annual wage hikes and promotions that took operating profit margins to multi-quarter lows.

On the other hand, Tata Steel, M&M, Dr Reddy's Lab, ICICI Bank and Asian Paints were among the gainers.

"As the domestic market turned its focus towards quarterly results, the weak start of IT earnings wounded the sentiments, forcing benchmark indices to open on a weak note. However, with support from banking, metal and energy stocks, the domestic market managed to pare its losses to close flattish," Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, told PTI.