Nifty ends flat in choppy trade; Bharti battered

After the overnight surge, the stock market witnessed intense volatility with the benchmark index CNX Nifty ending flat at the National Stock Exchange (NSE), where profit-booking was seen in key counters today.
Bouts of buying and selling dominated the trading session amidst profit-booking in bluechip shares in infra, auto, FMCG and pharma sectors.
Bharti Airtel slumped almost 5 per cent on concerns over participation of Reliance Jio's in upcoming spectrum auction. There is a perception that the Mukesh Ambani-led telecom firm's entry into 2G spectrum sale would hurt top player Bharti's market share and profitability.
IT shares gained after HCL Technologies reported 58.4 per cent rise in net profit in Q3.

Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors bought shares worth a net Rs 713.29 crore yesterday, according to provisional data from the stock exchange.
Trading began on an upbeat note with the Nifty hitting day's high of 6,346 on positive Asian cues in early trade. The index soon surrendered gains amid volatility and mostly traded in negative terrain before ending flat.

The 50-share Nifty traded between a high of 6,346.50 and a low of 6,299.85 before closing at 6,318.90, down 2 points, or 0.03 per cent, over the previous close.
Major losers were Bharti, Tata Motors, ONGC, Ranbaxy, Sun Pharma, JP Associates, Cipla, HDFC Bank, IDFC and M&M. Key gainers included HCL Tech, Coal India, UltraTech, Hindalco, Wipro, BPCL, Tata Steel, DLF, NMDC and SSLT.

Turnover in the cash segment moved up to Rs 11,437.79 crore from Rs 11,282.01 crore yesterday. A total of 5,439.06 lakh shares changed hands in 52,58,692 trades, while market capitalisation stood at Rs 68,53,464 crore.