Indian shares remained under pressure for the second straight session tracking weakness in global markets as the benchmark BSE Sensex today fell 19.17 points to 27,287.66, but stable earnings from some key blue-chips capped the losses.
A sharp correction in Chinese equities rekindled global risk aversion, with Shanghai Composite tumbling over 3 per cent after rising strongly in recent weeks.
Brokers said further weakening of the rupee against the dollar also took its toll.
"Markets ended almost unchanged after trading volatile in a narrow range. Participants upheld cautious stance throughout the day mainly due to lack of any major cue from earning front and mixed indications from the global front," said Jayant Manglik President Retail Distribution at Religare Securities.
Resuming higher, the Sensex touched the session's high of 27,445.24 on the back of sustained capital inflows and encouraging Q2 earnings by Hero MotoCorp.
However, the index failed to hold onto gains towards the middle of the session and slumped to a low of 27,190.55 before ending at 27,287.66, a fall of 19.17 points or 0.07 per cent.
The gauge had lost 58.09 points in the previous session.
The 50-share NSE Nifty remained lacklustre too, which dropped 9.95 points or 0.12 per cent to close the day at 8,251.70. Intra-day, it shuttled between 8,294.40 and 8,217.15.
Hero MotoCorp rallied 0.54 per cent on BSE after it posted 1.13 per cent rise in standalone net profit at Rs 772.06 crore for the second quarter ended September.
However, shares of HDFC Bank fell 0.03 per cent despite posting a 20.5 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 2,869.5 crore for the September quarter.
From the Sensex kitty, Dr Reddy's was the worst-hit, down 3.30 per cent, followed by SBI (1.87 per cent).
Others which lost are BHEL, GAIL, L&T, Sun Pharma, ICICI Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Lupin, Tata Motors and RIL.
Globally, Japanese stocks edged higher by 1.91 per cent as data showing lower-than-expected growth in its merchandise exports in September added to expectations that the government will announce fiscal stimulus.
Singapore and South Korea also moved up by 0.18 per cent to 0.22 per cent, while Taiwan was quoted lower by 0.51 per cent.
