Representational image only. | Image Credit: Reuters
The market’s benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ended with marginal gains on April 20 after falling over the past three days, helped by fag-end buying in energy, telecom and utility stocks.
“Investors remained cautious amid renewed foreign fund outflows and prevailing risk sentiments,” traders said.
In a highly volatile trade, the 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 64.55 points or 0.11% to settle at 59,632.35. During the day, it hit a high of 59,836.79 and a low of 59,489.98. The broader NSE Nifty rose 5.70 points or 0.03% to end at 17,624.45.
Among Sensex firms, Asian Paints, NTPC, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, State Bank of India, Larsen & Toubro, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, ITC, HDFC Bank and Maruti were the biggest winners.
Hindustan Unilever, Infosys, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finance, Nestle, Axis Bank, Reliance Industries and HDFC are among those caught.
In Asian markets, Japan and Hong Kong settled in positive territory, while Seoul and Shanghai ended lower. European markets are trading in the negative zone. US markets ended mostly lower on Wednesday.
“Continued earnings in Q4 are the focus area of the market. It has a negative bias due to lower than expected preliminary results announced, especially in the IT sector. The global market is not supported due to expectations of another rate hike and mixed earnings release in the US
Due to cautious global sentiment, withdrawals by FIIs throughout the week hampered the market trend,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.
Falling for the third day, the BSE Sensex was down 159.21 points or 0.27% to settle at 59,567.80 on Wednesday. The Nifty fell 41.40 points or 0.23% to end at 17,618.75.
Meanwhile, global oil benchmark Brent crude fell 1.89% to $81.55 a barrel. Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) offloaded equities worth ₹13.17 crore on Wednesday, according to exchange data.
