Indian benchmarks end flat; HDFC Bank counters PSU banks, pharma gains

Indian stock benchmarks ended little changed in a choppy session Thursday on subdued risk appetite, missing out on broad gains in global markets from Japan to Europe, where the benchmark index hit a record high.

The Nifty 50 edged up 0.06% to 25,496.55 and the BSE Sensex shed 0.03% to 82,248.61.

Both the benchmarks swung between gains of 0.4% and equivalent-sized losses over the course of Thursday’s session. They had added about 0.9% each intraday in the previous session as well, but surrendered most of those gains to finish only marginally higher on Wednesday.

Fourteen of the 16 major sectors advanced on the day.

Public sector banks added 1%, led by a 0.8% rise in the country’s largest lender State Bank of India after CLSA reiterated its “outperform” rating, citing an industry-leading liquidity coverage ratio, robust growth and profitability.

The pharma index gained 1.1% on the day, taking its five-session rise to 3.9%, with analysts attributing the uptick to sector rotation.

The highest-weighted stock in India’s stock benchmarks, private-sector lender HDFC Bank dropped 1%, offsetting the broader rise.

Small-caps closed flat while mid-caps gained 0.7%.

The IT index, which had declined about 20% in February as of Wednesday’s close on fears of AI-linked disruption, rose about 2% in intraday trade, but pared most of the gains to settle 0.1% higher.

“Uncertainty in IT is being driven by fears of AI-led disruption, something unprecedented, with no real referencepoint. So even if contrarian buyers step into IT stocks at attractive valuations, it’s hard to predict where the sector goes from here in the near-term,” said Siddhartha Khemka, head of research of wealth management at Motilal Oswal Financial.

“Having said that, overall corporate earnings are showing clear improvement, and domestic-facing sectors could gain from a consumption revival. The market awaits fresh, incremental triggers for a sustained move higher, so until then, consolidation is likely to persist,” Khemka said.

Among individual stocks, Shaily Engineering rose 2.5% on securing a contract worth 4.23 billion rupees.

Sanofi India lost 2.9% after reporting a year-on-year drop in profit in the December quarter.