Stock markets settle flat in muted trade; Adani Ports spurts over 5%

Benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty ended flat in listless trading on Thursday amid a lack of near-term triggers and unabated foreign fund outflows.

The 30-share BSE benchmark Sensex dipped 0.39 points to settle at 78,472.48 in a muted trade. During the morning trade, it had jumped 425.5 points or 0.54 per cent to 78,898.37.

The NSE Nifty eked out gains of 22.55 points or 0.1 per cent to 23,750.20 on the monthly expiry day.

From the 30 blue-chip stocks, Titan, Asian Paints, Nestle, Tech Mahindra, Reliance Industries, Zomato, Larsen & Toubro and Bajaj Finserv were among the laggards.

Adani Ports, Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti, Sun Pharma, Bharti Airtel and Tata Motors were among the gainers.

In Asian markets, Tokyo and Shanghai settled in the positive territory while Seoul ended lower. US markets were closed on Wednesday for Christmas.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth Rs 2,454.21 crore on Tuesday, according to exchange data.

The Indian stock markets were closed on Wednesday because of Christmas.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.53 per cent to USD 73.97 a barrel.

After gyrating between highs and lows, the 30-share BSE index declined 67.30 points to 78,472.87 on Tuesday. Nifty dipped 25.80 points or 0.11 per cent to 23,727.65.