Sensex, Nifty End Choppy Session Modestly Higher

(RTTNews) - Indian shares swung between gains and losses before ending slightly higher on Thursday amid optimism over GST reforms, hopes of Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts and comments from U.S. President Donald Trump that his administration is continuing negotiations to address trade barriers with India.

Additionally, media reports quoted an EU diplomat as saying that the European Union is 'very unlikely' to impose crippling tariffs on India and China to squeeze Russia.

The EU is in the midst of concluding a trade deal with New Delhi, with the two sides looking to resolve their differences over issues of agriculture, dairy, and non-tariff barriers to meet an ambitious end-of-year deadline for a deal.

Earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump asked European officials to levy tariffs of up to 100 percent on imports from China and India to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The benchmark BSE Sensex ended the session up 123.58 points, or 0.15 percent, at 81,548.73, while the broader NSE Nifty index closed at 25,005.50, up 32.40 points, or 0.13 percent, from its previous close.

The BSE mid-cap index edged up by 0.14 percent but the small-cap index ended little changed with a negative bias.

The market breadth was slightly positive on the BSE, with 2,100 shares gaining while 2,016 shares declined and 165 shares closed unchanged.

Banks, financials and PSU stocks like NTPC and Power Grid Corp topped the gainers list as IT stocks succumbed to some profit taking ahead of Infosys's share buyback decision. Infosys shares fell 1.5 percent.