The Sensex and the Nifty ended slightly lower on Thursday after short-covering tied to the expiry of derivatives lifted some shares, while broader gains were capped after the US Federal Reserve kept open the prospect of more rate hikes this year.
The 30-share BSE index Sensex ended down by 22.82 points or 0.09 per cent at 24,469.57 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty was down 13.1 points or 0.18 per cent at 7,424.65.
Among BSE sectoral indices, FMCG index gained the most by 1.5 per cent, followed by oil & gas 0.88 per cent, healthcare 0.65 per cent and power 0.43 per cent. On the other hand, capital goods index was down 1.72 per cent, followed by banking 0.91 per cent, consumer durables 0.82 per cent and TECk 0.47 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were HUL (+3.02%), M&M (+2.06%), ITC (+1.95%), Reliance (+1.76%) and Sun Pharma (+1.62%), while the major losers were L&T (-2.72%), Bharti Airtel (-2.32%), Axis Bank (-2.06%), BHEL (-1.97%) and Adani Ports (-1.86%).
The Fed had kept the interest rates unchanged on Wednesday and said it was "closely monitoring" global economic and financial developments, signalling it had accounted for a stock market sell-off but wasn't ready to abandon a plan to tighten monetary policy this year.
Equity markets back home were slightly volatile as investors churned their positions on the last day of the January derivative contracts and ahead of the February futures and options series that begins on Friday.
"Some amount of short covering-led buying has happened due to derivatives' expiry," said Deven Choksey, managing director at KR Choksey Securities.
Global markets
European shares fell slightly in choppy trade on Thursday with losses limited by gains in oil stocks, while disappointing results from Roche weighed on the healthcare sector.
Asian shares pushed back into the black on Thursday as investors dipped their toes back into equities and demand for safe haven assets such as the yen and sovereign bonds faded.
After starting weaker, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan swung 0.4 per cent firmer in very choppy trade.
Wall Street stocks and the dollar fell on Wednesday as the Federal Reserve held US interest rates unchanged, as expected, and said it was closely monitoring global economic and financial developments.