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The 30-share Sensex provisionally ended up 8 points at 27,507 and the 50-share Nifty closed 1 point higher at 8,284.
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(Updated at 2:30PM)
Markets continued to remain flat in late noon trades on Thursday, amid lack of investor participation, with index heavyweights leading the decline.
At 2:30PM, the 30-share Sensex was down 25 points at 27,474 and the 50-share Nifty was down 7 points at 8,276.
The rupee was trading lower at Rs 63.30 to the US dollar compared to the previous close of Rs 63.03.
In the first eight months of this financial year (April-December), the central government’s fiscal deficit totalled 98.9 per cent of the Budget Estimate (BE) for fiscal 2014-15, despite an easing subsidy burden due to a plunge in crude oil prices.
Official data, issued on Wednesday, showed the deficit stood at Rs 5.25 lakh-crore against the full-year’s Budget Estimate of Rs 5.3 lakh-crore. For the corresponding period last year, the deficit was 93.9 per cent of the full-year BE.
Meanwhile, country core sector growth touched a five month high at 6.7% in the month of November, 2014 compared to 6.3% growth in October, 2014. The Steel sector, one of the eight components considered to be core sectors, slowed further to 1.3%.
Meanwhile, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 481.08 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.
Globally, the Sensex was the second best performing index among major nations after China's benchmark share index Shanghai Composite rising nearly 53% in 2014.
Foreign institutional investors were net buyers in Indian equities to the tune of $16.07 billion in calendar year 2014 till December 30, 2014.
BSE Metal index was the top sectoral gainer up 0.8% followed by Capital Goods, Consumer Durables and Auto indices among others. Defensives such as Healthcare and FMCG indices were the losers.
Losses in index heavyweights Reliance Industries, ITC along with HDFC and HDFC Bank contributed the most to the Sensex decline.
Telecom shares were up after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Wednesday recommended a base price of Rs 2,720 crore a megahertz (MHz) for 2,100-MHz spectrum across the country (22 telecom zones). The price is about 22 per cent lower than the reserve price of the same spectrum in the previous auction, conducted in 2010. Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications were up 2-4% each.
Metal shares are trading higher by over 2.5% on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) after growth in China's services sector picked up slightly in December. China is the world's largest consumer of steel, copper and aluminum. Sesa Sterlite has gained over 2% while Hindalco and Tata Steel were up 0.3-0.9% each.
L&T was up 0.4%. L&T Infrastructure Development Projects Ltd ( L&T IDPL) has begun construction of a Rs 1293 crore road widening project in Odisha, more than a year after bagging the contract for it. BHEL is up nearly 1%.
Global crude prices fell to a five-and-half year low. RIL and GAIL have lost 0.4% each while ONGC is up 0.4%
Maruti Suzuki is up 0.5%. Country's largest car-maker Maruti Suzuki India (MSI) today reported a 20.8% increase in total sales in December at 1,09,791 units. TSTS Motors, Bajaj Auto have gained between 0.2-0.4%.
Among other shares, Jet Airways and SpiceJet, are trading 5-8% higher after Airline Turbine Fuel (ATF) prices were cut by 12.5% in Delhi.
The broader markets outperformed the benchmark indices. The BSE Mid-cap index was up 0.6% and the Small-cap index was up 1.2%.
Market breadth was strong with 1,684 gainers and 973 losers on the BSE.
