Sensex ends flat; IT stocks gain

A benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed flat - up a mere 53 points or 0.19 percent in Thursday's trade session.

The trade started on a cautious note as sentiments were sober due to derivative contract expiry and the upcoming economic data on Friday.

The markets made gains over Wednesday's closing in a mixed session with positive Asian cues coming from news about more central bank stimulus helping the Chinese economy in the coming days.

Healthy buying was observed in IT (information technology), healthcare and automobile sectors, while selling pressure was seen in consumer durables, capital goods and metal stocks.

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 28,397.80 points, closed the day's trade at 28,438.91 points, up 52.72 points or 0.19 percent from the previous day's close at 28,386.19 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 28,498.30 points and a low of 28,307.58 points in the intra-trade.

"Global markets also witnessed significant movement apart from Chinese markets, which gained significantly after easing was announced," said Sahaj Agrawal, deputy vice president - derivatives research, Kotak Securities.

"Stock specific action was seen throughout the entire month. In the banking space, private and large cap PSU banks gained while the smaller PSU banks remained under pressure."

The S&P IT index gained 119.30 points, healthcare sectors moved up by 94.67 points and automobile index was up 65.15 points. However, consumer durables index dropped by 95.29 points, capital goods index was lower by 29.05 points and metal index slipped by 20.49 points.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also ended flat. It was up 18.45 points or 0.22 percent at 8,494.20 points.

The major Sensex gainers were: BHEL, up 4.35 percent at Rs.283; Hindustan Unilever, up 2.71 percent at Rs.789.15; Hindalco Inds, up 2.07 percent at Rs.172.65; Tata Power, up 1.99 percent at Rs.92.45; and Infosys, up 1.61 percent at Rs.4,366.90.

The major Sensex losers were: Bharti Airtel, down 1.91 percent at Rs.385.85; Tata Steel, down 1.12 percent at Rs.460.50; Sesa Sterlite, down 1.08 percent at Rs.238.15; ONGC, down 0.91 percent at Rs.382.20; and Larsen and Toubro (L&T), down 0.89 percent at Rs.1,619.40.

Among other Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei index was down 0.78 percent, Shanghai's Composite Index was higher by 0.99 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng lost 0.45 percent.

In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was down 0.04 percent. Germany's DAX Index gained 0.47 percent.