Sensex, Nifty End Marginally Higher; PSU Stocks Top Performers

Indian shares ended a choppy session little changed on Monday as investors braced for key global events this week, including the release of the U.S. jobs report, ECB rate decision, China’s top annual political gathering and Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s congressional testimony.

Powell testifies Tuesday and Wednesday before House and Senate committees, a semi-annual exercise.

The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex ended the session up 66.14 points, or 0.09 percent, at 73,872.29 while the broader NSE Nifty index settled 27.20 points, or 0.12 percent, higher at 22,405.60.

PSU stocks topped the gainers list, with BPCL, ONGC, Power Grid and NTPC climbing 3-4 percent.

On the losing side, Britannia Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra, SBI Life, JSW Steel and Eicher Motors fell 2-3 percent.

Cues from Asia and Europe were mixed despite Wall Street’s main indexes surging to record closing highs on Friday.

The U.S. dollar weakened slightly while Treasury yields edged up, after having fallen to around three-week lows on Friday, following the release of weak U.S. manufacturing and consumer sentiment data.

Gold held near a two-month high in European trade on hopes for a Fed rate cut in June.

Oil prices were little changed after climbing over 2 percent to a four-month high on Friday amid rising tensions in the Red Sea and Middle East.

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