Stock Market on Wednesday: Experts said that after a record spree, markets were likely to cool off.After a flat opening, the domestic equity market turned negative on Wednesday and started trading in a range.
The Sensex opened at 37,756.24 and the Nifty50 at 11,412.50.
But soon after, Nifty lost the crucial 11,400 mark and traded at 11,390.15, up 0.70 or 0.01 per cent.
The Sensex was flat at 37,666.77.Hindalco, GAIL, Mahindra and Mahindra, Tata Steel and Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited were the top Nifty gainers.
Metal stocks traded with gains as the Nifty Metal index was up 0.79 per cent.
Nifty PSU Bank was down 0.07 per cent.Experts said that after a record-running spree, markets were likely to cool off.
"After the market was unfailingly hitting record highs, a cool down was merited.
Traders are advised to go for a directional view on the indices.
One should look for stock specific action," said Ritesh Ashar, Chief Strategy Officer, KIFS Trade Capital.In terms of stock-specific action, Mphasis shares traded 2.74 per cent higher at Rs 1,160.35 after the IT services company's board approved Rs 988.3 crore buyback of up to 73.3 lakh shares (3.79 per cent equity) at Rs 1,350 each.
Shares of Patel Engineering traded at Rs 49.90, up 14.06 per cent after the company bagged two hydro projects and tunnel projects orders worth Rs 2,400 crore.Meanwhile, Asian shares rose on the back of firmer Wall Street earnings while expectations for increased Chinese stimulus helped take the edge off wider concerns about the worsening Sino-US trade dispute, according to a report by news agency Reuters.MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.22 per cent while Japan's Nikkei ticked up 0.05 per cent.On Wall Street, the SP 500 rose 0.28 per cent to 2,858, which is just 14 points, or about 0.5 per cent, below its record high marked in January.On Tuesday, foreign portfolio investors bought net equities of Rs 314.83 crore while domestic institutional investors sold net shares of Rs 319.9 crore.
The Sensex closed at 37,665.80 while the Nifty50 at 11,389.45.
(With Reuters inputs)