Sensex, Nifty end the day on a flat note

Selling pressure once again troubled the domestic equity markets as the key benchmark index National Stock Exchange (NSE) Nifty closed the day at 8,224, down by 0.14 per cent or 11.25 points over Wednesday's closing levels.

Similarly, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) Sensex opened for the day at 27,293, made a low of 26,948 and closed the day at 27,206, down by 45 points or 0.17 per cent against Wednesday's closing figures.

Among the BSE sectoral indices, the BSE Realty index gained the most 1.07 per cent to 1561.81, followed by S&P BSE Oil & Gas index (up 1.02 per cent to 9,326.53), S&P BSE Auto index (up 0.85 per cent to 18,964.52), S&P BSE Metal index (up 0.76 per cent to 9,988.56), S&P BSE Power index (up 0.69 per cent to 2038.78) and S&P BSE Bankex (up 0.26 per cent to 20,822.52).

On the other hand, S&P BSE IT index and Consumer Durables index declined the most 0.71 per cent and 0.41 per cent to 10,509.55 and 10,094.86, respectively.

Alex Mathews, head of research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services, says, "Markets opened with a marginal uptick and later witnessed heavy sell-off and Nifty tested an intraday low at 8,137.30 and closed 0.17 down without much triggers. Weak US retail sales data kept the dollar under check helped the Indian rupee and Indian stocks to a certain extent."

Among the Nifty stocks, Asian Paints, Punjab National Bank, Hindalco, BPCL and State Bank of India stood the top performing stocks with gain of 4.26 per cent, 3.49 per cent, 3.07 per cent, 2.87 per cent and 2.62 per cent, respectively.

However, Lupin, Vedanta, Power Grid Corporation of India, HCL Technologies and Sun Pharmaceuticals lost 3.17 per cent, 1.60 per cent, 1.24 per cent, 1.23 per cent and 1.20 per cent, respectively, and stood at the bottom of the performance chart of Nifty.

Overall market breadth remained strong on the BSE as 1,471 stocks ended with gains, while 1,211 closed with losses. Advances to decline ratio for Nifty remained at 29:21. Volumes for Nifty stocks stood at 1,388 lakh against volumes of 1,749 lakh in Wednesday's trading session.

Meanwhile, UFO Moviez India, a digital cinema distribution firm, made its debut on stock exchanges on Thursday at Rs 600 per share. Shares of the company listed 4 per cent lower than the issue price of Rs 625. However, it ended the day at Rs 598.

Hiren Dhakan, associate Fund manager, Bonanza Portfolio, says, "These fresh lows in inflation has boosted investor expectations of a rate cut from the Reserve Bank of India in its upcoming policy meet as Industrial output had also hit a 5 month low of 2.1 per cent."

According to the website of NSDL, foreign portfolio investors stood net sellers in the capital markets, sold shares worth Rs 107.06 crore.

Asian peer markets posted mixed bag of performance for the day, Nikkei 225 lost 0.91 per while Shanghai and Hang Seng gained by 0.06 per cent and 0.14 per cent, respectively.

On the domestic front, wholesale price inflation fell to a fresh low of -2.65 per cent in the month of April against a positive 5.55 per cent in the same month a year ago. 

On Friday, companies like Zuari Global, Videocon, Scheinder, Tata Coffee, Amrutanjan, JSW steel, Torrent Pharma, Orient Hotel, Dena Bank, HT Media, JK Lakshmi Cement, IL&FS Transportation and Purvankara may announce their earnings.