Sensex, Nifty close flat amid unabated FII selling

Benchmark stock indices Sensex and Nifty closed flat in highly volatile trade on Monday as continuous FII selling, disappointing quarterly earnings and weak trends from Asian markets dented investor sentiment.

After gyrating between highs and lows, benchmark Sensex eked out gains of 9.83 points or 0.01 per cent to settle at 79,496.15.

The barometer gyrated 1,100.8 points between the day's high of 80,102.14 and a low of 79,001.34.

The NSE Nifty dipped marginally by 6.90 points or 0.03 per cent to 24,141.30.

From the 30-share Sensex pack, Asian Paints tumbled over 8 per cent after the company on Saturday reported a 43.71 per cent decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 693.66 crore for the September quarter, impacted by soft-demand conditions, material price inflation and a decline in decorative and coatings business in the domestic market.

Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance, Mahindra & Mahindra, JSW Steel, NTPC, Adani Ports, Bajaj Finserv and Larsen & Toubro were also among the laggards.

However, Power Grid, HCL Technologies, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services and ICICI Bank were among the gainers.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 3,404.04 crore on Friday, according to exchange data.

Prashanth Tapse, Senior VP (Research), Mehta Equities Ltd, said, Indian markets remain under pressure, largely due to relentless foreign investor selling.

"The actions of FIIs are dominating the current market momentum, which is backed by a weak set of earnings and expectations from Trump policy.

"The risk of further downgrades in Nifty earnings casts clouds over investor sentiment, while the IT sector continued to outperform due to the strong US dollar and in anticipation of a revamp in US IT spending," Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services said.

India is also looking forward to the CPI data with a muted view as food prices are likely to be higher on MoM basis, essentially forging RBI to hold the interest rates in the short term, Nair added.

In Asian markets, Seoul and Hong Kong settled lower while Tokyo and Shanghai ended higher.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude declined 0.83 per cent to $73.26 a barrel.