The Sensex and Nifty ended flat on Tuesday, with the BSE index down 69.86 points, or 0.09 per cent, at 76,765.92.
The Nifty 50 slipped 10.60 points, or 0.04 per cent, to close at 23,985.35.
Bank Nifty fell 331.60 points, or 0.58 per cent, to settle at 56,755.60.
IT stocks were the day’s gainers, with the Nifty IT index up 3.32 per cent, led by TCS and Tech Mahindra.
Hindustan Unilever fell nearly 7 per cent after its quarterly earnings missed market expectations, making it the top loser on the index.
Coal India also dropped more than 4 per cent on weaker-than-expected quarterly profit, citing lower production volumes and higher operating costs, with Bharat Electronics also among the losers.
The Nifty Midcap index gained 0.08 per cent, while the Nifty Smallcap index slipped 0.22 per cent.
The flat session followed Monday’s sharp rally, when the indices snapped a five-day losing streak driven by falling crude oil prices.
Market participants said the earnings season remained a key driver of stock-specific moves this week, with several large companies due to report their quarterly results in the coming days.
The day also marked the monthly expiry for Nifty futures and options contracts, which analysts said contributed to range-bound trading through large parts of the session.
Foreign institutional investors have been closely watched in recent sessions, with their buying or selling activity often cited as a factor behind the market’s day-to-day direction.
Hindustan Unilever’s fall came after the company reported quarterly numbers that fell short of analyst estimates, with investors reacting sharply to the miss given the stock’s weight in the consumer goods space within the benchmark indices.
The rally in IT stocks was broad-based, with several other companies in the sector also posting gains during the session, as investors responded positively to the outlook shared by some of the larger firms during recent earnings updates.
(Image: Niyantha Shekhar (CC BY 2.0))
