Indian shares end flat as IT offsets energy losses
Updates with closing levels at 3:30 p.m. IST
By Hritam Mukherjee and Bharath Rajeswaran
Oct 1 (Reuters) -Indian equities swung between mild gains and losses before ending little changed on Tuesday, as profit booking, especially in energy stocks, offset gains in information technology firms.
The Nifty 50 index .NSEI shed 0.05% to 25,796.9, while the S&P BSE Sensex .BSESN settled 0.04% lower at 84,266.29. They moved between 0.1% higher and 0.1% lower through the session.
The Nifty gained 2.3% in September, rising for a fourth straight month and scaling all-time highs, as the outsized U.S. rate cut boosted hopes of foreign inflows into India.
However, a lack of major domestic triggers since then led some investors to sell the rally in the past two days.
"After an almost unidirectional rally in domestic markets for most of September, some kind of profit booking was due," Kranthi Bathini, director of equity strategy at Wealthmills Securities.
"But that does not change the positive narrative on Indian markets."
The energy index .NIFTYENR shed 0.75%, the most among the 13 major sectors and dropping for the third straight session after a six-day rally.
The drop in energy stocks is along expected lines, said two analysts, after they jumped last week, in line with other commodity stocks, after China's stimulus plans.
IT firms .NIFTYIT added 1.2%, led by a 3.1% rise in Tech Mahindra TEML.NS after brokerage CLSA's upgrade, and after positive commentary from the U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on the health of the U.S. economy.
Indian IT firms earn a significant share of their revenue from the U.S.
Among individual stocks, Mahindra & Mahindra MAHM.NS rose 2.3% after reporting that domestic vehicle sales jumped 24% in September.
The Indian markets will be closed on Wednesday for a local holiday. Trading will resume on Oct. 3, Thursday.
Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee and Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy, Mrigank Dhaniwala and Savio D'Souza
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