Indian shares ended flat on Tuesday, rebounding from earlier losses on the back of a late rally in metals and mining stocks such as Jindal Steel and Power Ltd that had lagged the index in recent weeks.
That late spurt helped indexes recover from earlier disappointment, when the NSE index had fallen as much as 0.8 per cent, led by a decline in lenders after the Reserve Bank of India left interest rates on hold.
The BSE index rose 0.04 per cent or 12.13 points to end at 28,516.59, while the NSE index ended flat at 8,660.30.
Jindal Steel and Power Ltd, which has lost close to 17 per cent of its share price in the last one month, gained 6.8 per cent in the session.
Tata Steel Ltd ended 5.1 per cent higher, while Sesa Sterlite Ltd closed up 3.6 per cent.
The BSE Midcap Index gained 0.74 per cent and Smallcap rallied 1.17 per cent. About 1,654 shares advanced, 1095 shares declined, and 106 shares were unchanged on the BSE.
The BSE banking index fell 0.71 per cent to 21,206.19 led by Axis Bank falling 1.69 per cent.
Also, the BSE Realty index slumped 1.62 per cent to 1,771.05, as shares of Omaxe fell by 3.21 per cent, DLF by 2.99 per cent and IB Real Estate by 2.76 per cent.
Top Nifty gainers : Tata Steel, SSLT, NTPC, M&M and Bajaj Auto.
Top Nifty losers : IDFC, Axis Bank, Sun Pharma, Tata Motors, and Hero MotoCorp.
On the Nifty, 27 stocks advanced and 23 declined from Monday’s close.
Bank Nifty was down 136 points with 7 of the 12 stocks declining. Axis Bank was the worst hit with losses of 1.76 per cent.
In opting to keep the key lending repo rate unchanged, the Reserve Bank of India said it wanted to wait longer to assess inflationary pressures before making its next move, and give banks more time to adjust their lending rates to reflect previous rate cuts.
The RBI also left the cash reserve ratio (CRR), or the share of deposits which lenders must keep with the central bank, unchanged at 4.00 per cent.
Some investors had hoped the central bank would lower the CRR to spur more banks to lend, but RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said the sector should have enough liquidity to be able to lower their lending rates.
"Market was expecting a CRR cut or something on those lines which could have given some direction and helped overall liquidity in the system," said Pankaj Murarka, head of equities at Axis Mutual Fund.
European shares rose in early trading on Tuesday, as FedEx's 4.4 billion euro ($4.8 billion) bid for Dutch package delivery firm TNT Express sparked a rally in the shares of other courier companies.