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The Sensex and Nifty ended flat after a volatile trade as jittery investors booked profits at every rise amid deepening worries over North Korea.
The 30-share BSE index Sensex ended up by 0.77 point or 0.00 per cent at 31,662.74 and the 50-share NSE index ended higher by 13.7 points or 0.14 per cent at 9,929.90.
Among BSE sectoral indices, metal index gained the most by 1.41 per cent, followed by auto 0.85 per cent, realty 0.69 per cent and capital goods 0.57 per cent. On the other hand, oil & gas index was down 0.39 per cent and FMCG 0.23 per cent.
Top five Sensex gainers were M&M (+2.02%), Bajaj Auto (+1.37%), Dr Reddy's (+1.24%), Sun Pharma (+1.06%) and Hero MotoCorp (+0.99%), while the major losers were ITC (-1.89%), Bharti Airtel (-1.36%), Tata Motors (-1.17%), Coal India (-0.96%) and ICICI Bank (-0.86%).
Global markets
Global markets recovered after the US government agreed to raise its debt limit until December.
US President Donald Trump had forged a surprising deal with Democrats in Congress on Wednesday to extend the US debt limit and provide government funding until December 15, embracing his political adversaries and blindsiding fellow Republicans in a rare bipartisan accord.
The agreement, which eliminates the near-term risk of a government shutdown, helped the MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gain 0.5 per cent. Japan's Nikkei closed 0.2 per cent higher.
North Korea tensions
The outlook for Indian markets still remains subdued given continued concerns over the escalating tensions around North Korea's nuclear test, but analysts said markets were still being supported by domestic retail investments, preventing any steep losses.
“There has been a sustained inflow trend into domestic mutual funds and retail participation into equities markets. The liquidity flow is reasonably abundant,” said Harish Krishnan, senior fund manager - equity at Kotak Mutual Fund.
“Given the stretched valuations, we don't see a significant upside either,” he added.
The Nifty Financial Services index climbed for the third consecutive session, led by Nifty 50 top percentage gainer Indiabulls Housing and Axis Bank Ltd , up as much as 4.2 per cent and 1.3 per cent, respectively.
Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd, a maker of fibre cables and other telecom equipment, extended gains to rise as much as 9.96 per cent to its highest in more than nine years after US-based investment manager GMO LLC bought 11.1 mln shares at a premium of about 12 per cent in a bulk deal on Wednesday.
Eicher Motors Ltd, the maker of Royal Enfield motorbikes, rose as much as 2.5 per cent as a media report said that the company is set to make a binding takeover bid for Italian motorcycle manufacturer Ducati for $1.8 billion-$2 billion.
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