Stock Market Ends Flat: Sensex Rises 33 Points; Nifty Around 19,450 Amid Volatility. Realty, Pharma Gain

Stock update: On the 30-share Sensex platform, Asian Paint, Titan, L&T, JSW Steel, ITC, HUL emerged gainers. ICICI Bank, NTPC, Infosys, TechM, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance were among the losers

The two key equity benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty, on Wednesday again ended flat amid volatility as markets remained range-bound. The S&P BSE Sensex ended at 64,976, up 33 points or 0.05 per cent, while the Nifty50 shut shop at 19,444, up 37 points or 0.19 per cent.

On the 30-share Sensex platform, Asian Paint, Titan, L&T, JSW Steel, ITC, HUL emerged gainers. On the downside, ICICI Bank, NTPC, Infosys, TechM, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance were among the losers.

In the broader BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices gained 0.5 per cent each.

Volatility index, India VIX, was down over 1 per cent today as ended at 11 levels.

Sectorwise, the Nifty Bank, Financial Services, IT, Media, and Private Bank indices dropped 0.3 per cent each. On the contrary, the Nifty Realty index gained 1.5 per cent, and the Nifty Pharma index added 1.48 per cent.

In the previous session on Tuesday, the S&P BSE Sensex settled at 64,942, down 16 points, while the NSE Nifty50 ended at 19,407, down 5 points.

Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services, said, "The domestic market traded rangebound with a positive bias. And further confidence may be derived from the global market cues post the FED chair speech. Oil prices continued to fall, which will provide respite to the domestic economy and navigate a downward trajectory to inflation & fiscal."

In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong settled lower. European markets were trading in the negative territory. The US markets ended in positive territory on Tuesday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.15 per cent to $81.73 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 497.21 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

Meanwhile, Indian rupee consolidated in a narrow range and settled lower by 1 paisa at 83.28 (provisional) against the US dollar on Wednesday, tracking a strong American currency overseas. Forex traders said a muted trend in domestic equities also weighed on the local unit while a correction in oil prices provided support to the currency.

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the local unit opened at 83.25 and touched a low of 83.29 against the greenback. It finally settled at 83.28 (provisional) against the dollar, registering a fall of 1 paisa from its previous close. On Tuesday, the rupee had settled lower at 83.27 against the US dollar.