Sensex, Nifty shed early gains, close on a mixed note amid lack of global cues; ICICI Bank, SBI among top losers

Market benchmarks Sensex and Nifty erased early gains due to profit-booking by traders and ended largely unchanged on Monday amid lack of domestic as well as global cues.

#MarketAtClose | Sensex & Nifty close flat but off lows, banks underperform. Nifty recovers 42 points from lows to end Monday session at 12,255; Sensex up 105 points from lows but fails to turn positive pic.twitter.com/R39fYUUBhG

— CNBC-TV18 (@CNBCTV18Live) December 30, 2019

After swinging over 260 points during the day, the 30-share BSE Sensex ended 17.14 points, or 0.04 percent, lower at 41,558, reported PTI.

The broader NSE Nifty, however, closed 10.05 points, or 0.08 percent, higher at 12,255.85.

ICICI Bank was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding 0.99 percent, followed by SBI, TCS, HUL, Asian Paints and Axis Bank.

On the other hand, Nestle India, Hero MotoCorp, Mahindra and Mahindra, Bharti Airtel and Tata Steel were among the gainers.

Analysts attributed this lacklustre trading pattern to absence of any major trigger points in the market.

Sectoral indices at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) were mixed with Nifty PSU bank tumbling by 1.17 percent. However, Nifty auto gained by 1.51 percent and metal by 1.2 percent.

Among stocks, Tata Motors emerged as the star of the day by adding gains of 4.31 percent to wind up at Rs 183.75 per share. Eicher Motors was also up by 2.6 percent while UPL, Nestle India and Vedanta were up by 1.48 to 1.82 percent.

However, banking majors had a bad time with Yes Bank down by 1.1 percent, ICICI Bank by 0.9 percent, Axis Bank by 0.5 percent and state-owned State Bank of India by 0.8 percent.

IT stocks too were in the loser’s stand with Tata Consultancy Services down by 0.7 percent and Infosys by 0.6 percent. The other prominent losers were Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Lever, Dr Reddy’s and Asian Paints.

On the currency front, the rupee was trading flat against the US dollar at 71.34 (intra-day).

Meanwhile, Asian shares were mixed with Japan’s Nikkei stock index sliding by 0.36 percent and Shanghai Composite by 0.08 percent. But Hong Kong’s Hang Seng moved up by 1.3 percent and South Korea’s Kospi by 0.29 percent.

Easing trade war worries and reduced uncertainty over Britain’s plans to leave the European Union after British elections returned a strong Conservative majority have offered a lift to global equities this month.

Stock exchanges in Europe started on a negative note.

Brent futures, the global oil benchmark, advanced marginally to $66.94 per barrel.

— With inputs from agencies