Nifty gives up all its gains to close flat

Mumbai : Domestic equities started on a strong note on the back of positive global cues.

However, they witnessed profit booking in the last hour, leading to Nifty giving up all its gains and closing flat at 19,347 points, up 0.02 per cent or 4.80 points, said Siddhartha Khemka, Head of Retail Research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

The BSE Sensex ended 0.02 per cent or 11.43 points higher at 65,087.25 points.

The broader market outperformed and continued its northbound journey with the Nifty Midcap 100 up 0.7 per cent and the Nifty Smallcap 100 up 1 per cent.

Sectorally, it was a mixed bag with buying seen in realty, metals, IT, auto and FMCG, Khemka said.

The equities were positive for a major part of the day on account of the rally in the global markets on the increasing possibility of the US Fed taking a pause in its upcoming policy meet in September after the country reported weaker jobs data and falling consumer confidence.

Locally, the market would keenly await the GDP data which is likely to remain strong. However, given mixed global cues and derivatives monthly expiry, Nifty is likely to remain in consolidation mode while sector rotation would lead to stock-specific action, Khemka added.

Nagaraj Shetti, Technical Research Analyst at HDFC Securities, said that after showing minor upside bounce with range-bound action in the last couple of sessions, Nifty showed lack of strength to sustain the gains on Wednesday and closed the day higher by 4.80 points.

After opening with an upside gap of 91 points, the market shifted into a range bound action for better part of the session. Sharp intra-day weakness triggered in the later part of the session as the market closed the day off the highs.

The short-term trend of Nifty remains choppy. The lack of strength to sustain the upside bounce on Wednesday could possibly drag Nifty down to its immediate supports of 19,250-19,200 levels in the short term. On the upper side, the area of 19,450 is likely to be a strong resistance, Shetty said.