Equities end flat after wild swings, Reliance among top gainers

Equity benchmark indices witnessed volatile trading on Tuesday but ended flat after two days of massive rally cooled off.

When the closing bell rang, the BSE S & P Sensex was up by 7 points at 39,097 while the Nifty 50 ended lower by 12 points at 11,588. At the National Stock Exchange, sectoral indices were mixed.

Nifty PSU bank closed 2.3 per cent lower, Nifty realty, financial services, metal and auto too were in the red. But IT, FMCG, media and pharma were in the positive zone.

Among stocks, Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFL) added more than 7 per cent, a day ahead of the company meeting where its the draft resolution plan will be discussed.

IT major Infosys was among the top performer with 3.8 per cent gain at Rs 794 per share. Other IT stocks too gained with Tech Mahindra up by 3.1 per cent, HCL Technologies by 1.5 per cent and Tata Consultancy Services by 1.5 per cent.

Index heavyweight Reliance Industries jumped over 3 per cent after foreign brokerage house Morgan Stanley maintained overweight rating with a target at Rs 1,469 per share.

The other prominent gainers were Tata Motors, Maruti, Power Grid Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation.

However, JSW Steel and State Bank of India lost by over 4 per cent while Eicher Motors, Axis Bank, Indian Oil Corporation and Larsen & Toubro tumbled by over 3 per cent.

The other prominent losers were Bharti Infratel, ONGC, Hero MotoCorp and Coal India.

Meanwhile, global shares ticked up after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said trade talks with China will resume next month. But doubts lingered over the slowing global growth amid geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan moved up 0.1 per cent while Japan's Nikkei edged up 0.2 per cent after a market holiday on Monday.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index advanced by 0.2 per cent while South Korean Kospi inched up by 0.4 per cent.