BENGALURU: Indian shares closed flat on Tuesday as investors continued to sell on profit with the benchmarks near all-time highs, looking past a clutch of upbeat quarterly reports and the rise in energy stocks.
The NSE Nifty 50 settled 0.09% higher at 24,857.3 points, while the S&P BSE Sensex added 0.12% to 81,455.4. Both the benchmarks had risen about 0.5% during the session, before surrending gains.
Nine of the 13 major sectors advanced. Energy index and public sector enterprises rose about 1% each.
The more domestically focussed small- and mid-caps rose 0.9% and 0.5%, respectively.
“An attempt to move up during the session failed to sustain as the market shifted to profit booking mode in the final hour of trade,” said Nagaraj Shetti, senior research analyst at HDFC Securities.
Indian shares end off record highs as traders book profits
The Nifty’s relative strength index (RSI) is at 70.50, which is a signal that the security is overbought, according to LSEG data.
Among individual stocks, state-owned power company NTPC gained 3.3%, on reporting higher June quarter profit.
NTPC’s peer Power Grid added 2.2%, as multiple brokerages saw the company’s increase in capex guidance and new order wins as major positives.
Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL), Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) and Indian Oil Corp (IOC) gained 1.4%-3.7%.
UBS upgraded HPCL and IOC to ‘buy’ and raised its target price on all three stocks, expecting gains in their marketing segment.
Auto maker Tata Motors gained 3.4% to hit a record high. The company is expected to report rise in June quarter profit, on August 1.
NTPC, Power Grid, BPCL and Tata Motors were among the top five Nifty 50 gainers.
Colgate Palmolive India gained 4.9% after reporting a higher quarterly profit, helped by price hikes, while Varun Beverages dropped 6.4% after missing profit estimates in June quarter.
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