Indian equity benchmarks were little changed on Thursday ahead of monthly expiry of November futures and options contracts as losses in ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Larsen & Toubro and HDFC were offset with gains in Reliance Industries, Infosys, Bharti Airtel and Tata Consultancy Services amid weak global cues. Asian shares wobbled lower on Thursday, hurt by the U.S. dollar which continued to march higher as investors bet on interest rates rising more quickly in the United States than in other major economies such as Japan and the euro zone.As of 9:21 am, the Sensex was up 58 points at 58,399 and Nifty 50 index rose 21 points to 17,436.MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.18 per cent to a six-week low, having posted a small decline in each of the past six trading sessions. Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.8 per cent.Overnight, Wall Street ended higher and is back testing record highs as tech stocks bounced back from a selloff earlier this week.Back home, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 5,123 crore while domestic institutional investors bought shares worth Rs 3,810 crore.Eight of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange were trading lower led by the Nifty Bank index’s 0.3 per cent fall. Nifty PSU Bank, Private Bank, Metal, Financial Services and Media indices also fell around 0.3 per cent.On the other hand, Nifty Realty and Information Technology indexes rose over 0.5 per cent.Mid- and small-cap shares were also facing selling pressure as Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 0.02 per cent and Nifty Smallcap 100 index declined 0.2 per cent.ICICI Bank was top Nifty loser, the stock fell 1.5 per cent to Rs 748. NTPC, Indian Oil, Eicher Motors, Coal India, Shree Cements, HDFC, Power Grid, Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints, IndusInd Bank, Britannia and Cipla also fell between 0.5-1.5 per cent.On the flipside, UPL, Reliance Industries, Tech Mahindra, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Infosys, Divi’s Labs, Adani Ports and Wipro were among the gainers.The overall market breadth was negative as positive as 1,643 shares were advancing while 1,005 were declining on the BSE.
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