Markets closed on account of May Day

Indian equity, forex, money and commodity markets will remain closed today on account of May Day. Trading will resume on Friday.

On Wednesday, benchmark share ended flat amid a volatile trading session because of both domestic poll-related concerns and geo-political concerns on the global front.

The BSE Sensex oscillated in a broad range of 400 points between a high of 22,680 and a low of 22,284 before closing at 22,417, down 48 points and the Nifty ended just short of the technically important level of 6670 at 6696, down 18 points.

The broader markets underperformed their heavyweight counterparts; the midcap index ended at 7323, weaker by 82 points and the smallcap index ended at 7489, down 124 points. All the sectoral indices ended lower, with banking, capital goods and realty emerging as the biggest losers.

The rupee gained against the US dollar on Wednesday to end at Rs 60.34 compared with the previous close of Rs 60.42 on persistent selling of the US dollar by exporters and corporates amid capital inflows.

US stocks surged on Wednesday with the Dow Jones ending at a record high on the back of Federal Bank's encouraging view on the economic prospects after it announced further reduction in its  bond-buying program.

The Fed in a statement said it would cut its monthly bond purchases to $45 billion from $55 billion.

The Dow Jones ended up 45.47 points to end at a record high of 16,580.84, the broader S&P 500 and the tech-laden Nasdaq ended up 0.3% each.

In Asia, the Nikkei was up 0.7% while other markets in the region were closed on account of May Day.