Nifty ends flat with positive bias on Thursday

Indian equity benchmark -- Nifty ended flat with positive bias on Thursday as Israel-Lebanon have agreed to implement truce. Index made a gap-down start tracking weak cues from global peers amid ongoing US-Iran geopolitical jitters. But soon, the market recovered its losses, turned volatile, and traded in positive and negative territory for most of the day as traders remained cautious with relentless foreign fund outflows. As per NSE data, Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 5,616.56 crore on Wednesday. Meanwhile, traders remained on the sidelines ahead of the Reserve Bank of India’s monetary policy decision on Friday. However, there was some encouragement as private report indicated that the government may consider reducing/ removing taxes on foreign portfolio investors who invest in government securities. Finally, Nifty ended tad above neutral line.

Most of the sectorial indices ended in green led by Media, Consumer Durables, and PSU Bank. The top gainers from the F&O segment were Force Motors, Nippon Life India Asset Management and PG Electroplast. On the other hand, the top losers were National Aluminium Company, Bharat Heavy Electricals and Patanjali Foods. In the index option segment, maximum OI continues to be seen in the 24900 - 25100 calls and 23900 - 24100 puts indicating this is the trading range expectation.