Indian equity benchmark indices pared gains during the last hour of the session on Thursday and ended flat as US index futures indicated a subdued start on Wall Street later today.

Share Market Live

NSE

The 30-scrip Sensex closed 33.20 points up or 0.06 percent higher at 55,702.23, and the Nifty was up 5.10 points or 0.03 percent at 16,682.70. About 1,491 shares have advanced, 1,771 shares declined, and 116 shares are unchanged.

Among major gainers on the Nifty were IndusInd Bank, Tata Consumer Products, Britannia Industries, UltraTech Cement and Nestle India.

Tech Mahindra, Hero MotoCorp, Infosys, HCL Technology and Wipro were among major laggards.

In the broader market, the BSE MidCap and SmallCap indices fell up to 0.27 percent.

Amid the sectoral indices, the Nifty Realty index fell 2 percent, followed by the Nifty Pharma and Nifty PSU Bank.

The Nifty IT index, on the contrary, gained 2 percent.

Investors made Rs 8,396.6 crore as market cap of BSE-listed cos rose marginally to Rs 259.7 lakh crore.

The blockbuster initial public offering (IPO) of the country’s largest life insurer Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) was subscribed by around 90 percent till 3:30 pm on the second day.

Market expert Deven Choksey of KRChoksey says there is a clear lack of confidence as far as the players are concerned trading in the market because the volatility is unpredictable.

"Yesterday's price hike, rate hike move that has possibly given some amount of shakeout happening as far as the trade position is concerned. And that's where the traders are refraining from entering the market currently. In my understanding, the market is not likely to change its behaviour for some more time to come, largely because of the fact that we are right now experiencing the fourth quarter FY22 results," Choksey said.

He also said that this particular time is best for some investors where individually some of the good quality stocks are available at a lower valuation - the right thing to do as far as buying in the portfolio is concerned.

Global Markets

Global equity markets were still on the charge on Thursday on relief that the biggest hike in US interest rates in more than two decades hadn't been even sharper.

London, Paris and Frankfurt were up between 1.3 percent and 2 percent in early European trading amid collective cheers at Wednesday's 50 basis point Federal Reserve rate hike and its accompanying signals that 75 bps moves were now unlikely.

It kept European government bond yields largely in check ahead of what is expected to be the Bank of England's fourth hike since December, while oil steadied after the European Union's plan to ban Russian oil imports had triggered a near 5 percent spike.