The Sensex and Nifty ended nearly flat on Thursday paring early gains due to a decline in auto, banking, healthcare and FMCG shares, while a surge in market heavyweight Infosys Ltd after the announcement of a probable share buyback propped up the indexes.

The 30-share BSE-index Sensex ended higher by 24.57 points or 0.08 per cent at 31,795.46 and the 50-share NSE index Nifty closed up 6.85 points or 0.07 per cent at 9,904.15.

Both indexes marked their highest close in over a week.

Among BSE sectoral indices, IT index was the star-performer and was up 1.84 per cent, followed by TECk 1.79 per cent, PSU 0.88 per cent and power 0.85 per cent. On the other hand, auto index fell 0.72 per cent, banking 0.71 per cent, healthcare 0.51 per cent and FMCG 0.29 per cent.

Top five Sensex gainers were Infosys (+4.54%), Coal India (+4.22%), NTPC (+3.97%), Bharti Airtel (+2.29%) and HDFC (+0.95%), while the major losers were Cipla (-2.85%), Adani Ports (-1.81%), Maruti (-1.23%), Kotak Bank (-1.17%) and HUL (-1.04%).

Infosys shares jumped over 4.5 per cent after the company said that the board of directors will consider a proposal for buyback of equity shares at its meeting to be held on Saturday.

“Infosys buyback is a very good thing for other IT companies,” said AK Prabhakar, head of research, IDBI Capital.

Infosys drove gains in the Nifty IT index, which climbed as much as 1.4 per cent in its biggest intraday percentage gain in nearly a month. KPIT Technologies gained 3 per cent and Tech Mahindra 1.6 per cent.

The Nifty PSU Bank index, which has lost nearly 9 per cent since India's central bank announced its decision to cut repo rate, gained as much as 1.08 per cent. The Nifty FMCG index was trading 0.3 per cent higher after rising 2.5 per cent in the previous session.

Asian shares

Asian stocks edged higher on Thursday as tensions between the United States and North Korea came off the boil, while the Federal Reserve's concerns about weak US inflation weighed on the dollar.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia–Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.5 per cent.

US stocks had ended slightly firmer on Wednesday but off the day's highs as worries mounted over President Donald Trump's agenda and minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting suggested policymakers are worried about weak inflation.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 25.88 points or 0.12 per cent to end at 22,024.87, the S&P 500 gained 3.5 points or 0.14 per cent, to 2,468.11 and the Nasdaq Composite added 12.10 points or 0.19 per cent to 6,345.11.

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