Benchmark share indices ended flat on Wednesday, amid a volatile trading session, as selling pressure in auto shares on reports of steep additional tax on diesel driven vehicles and weakness in Reliance Industries capped gains.
The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended up 21 points at 16,883 and the 50-share Nifty ended up 6 points at 5,122.
The Sensex had touched an intra-day high of 16,944 and the Nifty touched 5,145.
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(Updated at 14:23 Hrs)
Benchmark share indices are trading flat in late noon deals on account of profit booking seen at higher levels. Selling pressure among auto shares and index heavyweight Reliance Industries has also capped the gains.
At 14:20, the Sensex was up 57 points at 16,920, and the Nifty gained 17 points at 5,133.
On the global front, European shares edged up and the euro was flat on Wednesday as worries over contagion from Spain's banking sector were heightened by a sharp rise in the country's borrowing costs. CAC, DAX and FTSE are trading flat with positive bias.
Back home, BSE Capital Goods, FMCG, Healthcare and Technology indices have surged between 0.5-2%. However, BSE Auto, Realty, Consumer Durable and Power indices are witnessing selling pressure, all slumping between 1-2%.
Capital goods shares led by power equipment makers gained after the recent announcement by the government for expansion of power capacity by 18,000MW. L&T is the top Sensex gainer, up over 3% while BHEL has gained over 1%.
FMCG major Hindustan Unilever is up over 2% on hopes that rural sales would get a boost in wake of the normal monsoon forecast by the MET department. ITC was marginally up after rising over 1% in early trades.
Software majors Infosys, TCS and Wipro have spurted between 0.4-1%.
Other notable gainers include Sun Pharma, ONGC, ICICI Bank, JSPL and SBI.
On the losing side, shares of automobiles companies are under selling pressure on reports that the government may impose a special tax on diesel cars. According to media reports, the government plans to impose additional levies of 170,000 rupees on small diesel cars and 255,000 rupees on medium and large diesel vehicles such as sedans and SUVs. The notable losers from the auto space are Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto and Tata Motors, down 1-3% each.
Index heavyweight Reliance Industries is down nearly 1%. According to reports, RIL has warned that production at its KG-D6 field will continue to decline as government is not approving investments needed to boost output.
The broader markets are mixed in trades with Small-cap index up 0.2% and the Mid-cap index down 0.2%.
Among other shares, Thinksoft Global Services has surged over 13% to Rs 61 extending its past three days rally on back of huge volumes. The stock rallied 36% in past four trading sessions, appreciating 73% since the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has chosen the company to deliver a comprehensive end-to-end User Acceptance Testing with full project management responsibility on December 2011.
Venus Remedies is trading higher by 6% to Rs 186, extending its previous day’s over 5% gain on receiving patent from the US Patent Office for new antibiotic product which targets drug resistant infections.
The market breadth in BSE remains marginally positive with 1,337 shares advancing and 1,203 shares declining.