The benchmark indices recovered to close almost flat on Wednesday after declining sharply in the morning session. The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex finished just 24.81 points down at 32,584.35 while the National Stock Exchange Nifty closed 23.60 points lower at 10,210.85.
Much of the decline in the benchmark indices during the morning session was attributed to Axis Bank’s second-quarter earnings report released on Tuesday evening. The private lender reported a net profit of Rs 432 crore for the July-September quarter, much below analysts’ expectations.
However, the recovery in the markets late in the day was the result of a surge in the share prices of Reliance Industries (up by 4.52% on the BSE and 4.81% on the NSE), HDFC Bank (up by 1% on the BSE) and ITC (up by 3.15% on the BSE and 1.01% on the NSE), MoneyControl reported.
The major gainers on the Sensex on Wednesday were Reliance Industries, Wipro, ONGC, Kotak Mahindra and NTPC. Axis Bank (-9.52%) was the top loser, followed by ICICI Bank, Cipla, the State Bank of India and Lupin.
The best performers on the Nifty were Reliance Industries, Power Grid Corp, Indiabulls Housing Finance, ONGC and Wipro. Stocks of Axis Bank (-9.48%), ICICI Bank, Bharti Infratel, Cipla and Tech Mahindra declined the most on the NSE.
Other major Asian markets also finished flat on Wednesday. The Shanghai SE Composite Index closed 9.33 points higher, Japan’s Nikkei 26.93 points up, and the Taiwan TSEC 50 Index just 2.87 points down. The Hong Kong Hang Seng closed 14.27 points higher at 28,711.76.
The rupee was trading 10 paise down at 65.12 against the United States dollar at 3.52 pm.
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