Indian shares end flat as profit booking offsets metals' climb on China stimulus
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By Manvi Pant and Indranil Sarkar
BENGALURU, Sept 24 (Reuters) -Indian shares ended flat on Tuesday, having swung between slight gains and losses through the day, as the boost to metal stocks from China's new stimulus measures was offset by profit-booking, especially in banking and consumer stocks.
The Nifty 50 .NSEI closed 0.01% higher at 25,940.4 points, while the S&P BSE Sensex .BSESN fell 0.02% at 84,914.04. They hit record highs near the open before then struggling to hold a firm direction.
Still, this was the fourth straight all-time high after the Federal Reserve's outsized rate cut last Wednesday sparked hopes of higher foreign inflows in Indian equities. However, the magnitude of the increase has been easing in each session.
The bigger boost on the day came after China, the top producer of several metals including steel and coal, unveiled a slew of measures to try to spur its sluggish economy.
Metal stocks .NIFTYMET jumped 3%, the most among the 13 major sectors, to a near two-month high. Heavyweights Tata Steel TISC.NS, Hindalco HALC.NS and JSW Steel JSTL.NS rose between 0.5% and 4%.
Analysts said that a growing domestic economy would likely stop Chinese steelmakers from dumping low-priced steel in other countries, including India, in search of profits.
"Besides, the recovery in China would strengthen export demand for the metals as well," said Ajit Mishra, senior vice president of research at Religare Broking.
Seven of the 13 major sectoral indexes showed gains.
The gains, however, were kept in check by a 0.8%drop in consumer stocks .NIFTYFMCG, as investors booked profits after a three-session rally in which they rose 2.6%.
Punjab National Bank PNBK.NS fell 3.3% after selling shares at a discount. It led the losses among state-owned banks .NIFTYPSU, which slipped 0.9%.
Paytm PAYT.NS rose 4.5% after Emkay Global upgraded the stock to "add", saying the fintech was on the path to profitability.
($1 = 83.5300 Indian rupees)
Reporting by Manvi Pant in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala, Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Savio D'Souza
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