Sensex, Nifty End Choppy Session Little Changed
(RTTNews) - Indian shares ended a choppy session on a flat note Thursday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell hinted at potential rate cuts later this year but signaled uncertainty about inflation and growth.
A weaker dollar and lower Treasury yields helped underpin investor sentiment to some extent after Powell signaled in testimony to a House of Representatives that the U.S. central bank is on track to cut interest rates "at some point this year".
At the same time, Powell described the U.S. economic outlook as "uncertain" and noted that bringing down inflation was "not assured."
The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex ended a choppy session up 33.40 points, or 0.05 percent, at 74,119.39 ahead of market holiday on Friday on account of Mahashivratri.
The broader NSE Nifty index settled 19.50 points, or 0.09 percent, higher at 22,493.55.
Metal stocks topped the gainers list, with Tata Steel rallying 3.6 percent and JSW Steel gaining 2.1 percent after China's trade data for the January-February period beat forecasts.
Tata Consumer Products jumped 3.7 percent on reports it is eyeing more acquisitions after integrating Capital Foods and Organic India successfully.
Bajaj Auto climbed 3.1 percent to extend gains for a sixth straight session after reporting positive monthly sales data and encouraging news on the extension to the electric vehicle incentive scheme.
On the losing side, Mahindra & Mahindra slumped 4 percent after a small stake sale by promoter.
LTIMIndTree, Axis Bank, Reliance Industries and BPCL dropped 1-2 percent.
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