Indian shares ended slightly higher on Thursday as derivatives expiry, a long weekend and the central bank's credit policy meeting next week deterred investors from building large positions. The broader NSE index ended 0.29 percent higher, while the benchmark BSE index gained 0.16 percent. Both indexes posted their first weekly decline in three. The NSE index lost 1.42 percent and the BSE index shed 1.36 percent this week. Indian markets will be closed on Friday for a local holiday. The Reserve Bank of India is likely to cut interest rates for the fourth time this year at a policy review on September 29, as falling energy prices have cooled inflation and the economy has slowed, a Reuters poll showed.
Indian shares see-sawed between minor gains and losses with Thursday marking the expiry of September futures and options contracts, and traders churning positions. "Because of the long weekend the market is not building any further volumes of the positions today," Deven Choksey, managing director at KR Choksey Securities, said. Defensive stocks like IT, healthcare and consumer goods booked gains while financials and energy stocks lagged.
Among banking stocks, HDFC Bank fell 0.89 percent, Kotak Mahindra Bank fell 1.9 percent and ICICI Bank was down 0.7 percent. Blue-chips stocks Larsen & Toubro slipped 1.7 percent while Reliance lost 1.2 percent, weighing on the NSE. Infosys gained 1.3 percent, Lupin rose 3 percent and TCS was up 0.9 percent, offsetting some of the losses.
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