Indian shares erased early gains to end modestly lower on Wednesday, as engineering & construction giant Larsen & Toubro posted disappointing Q4 results and investors awaited Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's testimony before the Joint Economic Committee of Congress later in the global day. Besides Bernanke's speech, traders also await existing U.S. home sales data as well as the minutes of the latest Fed meeting for hints of potential changes in the Fed's asset purchase program.
The benchmark 30-share Sensex ended the session down 49 points or 0.25 percent at 20,062, with 16 of its components retreating. The broader 50-share Nifty index fell by 20 points or 0.32 percent to 6,094. Capital goods, realty and oil/gas stocks led the declines, while FMCG, healthcare and IT stocks posted modest gains.
Larsen & Toubro led the decliners in the Nifty pack, tumbling a little over 6 percent as the construction major reported a 7 percent fall in quarterly profit, lagging estimates. Property developer DLF slumped 5.9 percent, while GAIL, Cairn India, Bank of Baroda and JP Associates lost 2-4 percent.
Oil marketing companies like BPCL, HPCL and IOC plunged 3-5 percent ahead of a policy meet today to discuss shifting the pricing of petrol and diesel from the current trade parity basis to export parity mechanism.
Ranbaxy declined 1.3 percent on reports the Drugs Controller General of India would likely examine comprehensively all the documents, dossiers and approvals of the company in India. Jet Airways also shed 1.3 percent on reports fair trade regulator CCI is looking into the over Rs. 2,000-crore Jet-Etihad deal.
Puravankara Projects plummeted 6.7 percent after the realty firm set a price band of Rs 80-85 a share for selling shares to institutional investors. Adani Power plunged 7 percent on profit taking, snapping a 6-day rally.
Coal India, which is looking to acquire overseas coal assets, rose 0.8 percent after announcing higher dividend. ONGC also closed 0.8 percent higher after its overseas arm ONGC Videsh reported a 44 percent jump in net profit for fiscal 2012-13.
Software services exporter TCS gained 0.3 percent, Wipro added 1.1 percent and HCL Technologies closed up over a percent after the rupee fell to its lowest level in six months. Tech Mahindra rallied 3.9 percent as the IT services firm reported a 25 percent rise in fourth-quarter consolidated net profit, beating estimates.
Pharmaceutical firms Dr Reddy's and Sun Pharma rose 2-3 percent, telecom major Bharti Airtel added 2.5 percent, state-owned power producer NTPC gained 2 percent and diversified business conglomerate ITC closed 1.6 percent higher.
Elsewhere, other Asian markets turned in a mixed performance, with Japanese shares rallying sharply to a fresh five-and-a-half-year high after the Bank of Japan maintained its plan to expand the monetary base aimed at beating deflation. European stocks were broadly lower ahead of Bernanke's speech later in the global day.
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June 05, 2026 16:18 ET A busy week for economic news flow saw a slew of reports being released that reflected the trends in the U.S. labor market. In Europe, economic growth and inflation data gained attention as the European Central Bank and Bank of England head for policy session later in the month. In Asia, the monetary policy session of the Indian central bank was in focus as the country, a major oil importer, reels under the pressures of a weaker rupee and rising inflation.