Indian shares ended largely flat on Tuesday as investors awaited key inflation data from India and the United States this week for clues on interest rate cuts in the two countries.
The NSE Nifty 50 shed 0.04% to 24,610.05 points, while the BSE Sensex settled flat at 81,510.05.
After logging gains in the last three weeks until Friday, the Nifty 50 has since traded in a narrow range of less than 170 points.
“The Nifty saw another lackluster trading session, remaining confined within the range of 24,500 to 24,650. The sentiment is likely to stay sideways in the near term,” Rupak De, senior analyst at LKP Securities, said.
U.S. CPI data on Wednesday will likely shape the Federal Reserve’s interest rate outlook, which could impact foreign inflows into emerging markets such as India. Domestic inflation figures are due a day later, with economists expecting inflation to have eased in November.
The energy index fell 0.6%, with Reliance and Oil & Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) - which account for about 42% of the sector weightage - shedding about 0.8% each.
Consumer, autos stocks drag India’s benchmarks lower
Reliance Industries, the second-heaviest stock in the Nifty 50, fell after J.P.Morgan flagged near-term risks to fiscal year 2025 earnings growth.
ONGC was down after HSBC cut the price target on the stock to a Street-low, and termed the company’s track record of production growth “uninspiring”.
In contrast, IT stocks gained 0.8%.
Infosys rose 1.3% and LTIMindtree rose about 3% each after HSBC upgraded the two stocks and termed them its top picks in the IT sector.
The broader, more domestically-focussed smallcaps and midcaps rose about 0.25% each.
Anong other individual stocks, Life Insurance Corp of India fell 3.9% after posting a drop in total premium collections in November.
Realty firm Godrej Properties gained 2% after Jefferies forecast a 35% growth in pre-sales to more than $3.5 billion for fiscal year 2025.
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