Mumbai: The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty trimmed gains in late trade to close flat on Wednesday due to profit booking and disappointing forecast by Bharti Airtel. The cut in India's gross domestic forecast (GDP) forecast by the foreign research firms CLSA and Citi to 5.5 per cent and 5.4 per cent from 6 per cent and 6.2 per cent also dampened sentiment.
The 30-share BSE benchmark declined 1.22 points to close at 17,600.56 after gaining as much as 125 points intraday. Meanwhile, the 50-share NSE Nifty hit an intraday high of 5,377.60, before closing with gains of just 1.3 points at 5,338.
The market traded in a positive terrain since morning, but the further fall in European markets after Bank Of England cut economic growth too weighed on Indian equities in late trade. BoE sees modest recovery in growth on gentle pickup in household and said UK GDP would not surpass pre-crisis level until 2014. France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE were down more than 0.5 per cent.
Back home, country's largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel crashed 6.6 per cent as its consolidated net profit fell higher than expected 24.23 per cent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 762.2 crore in the quarter ended June 2012 while analysts on an average had expected it in the vicinity of Rs 1,075 crore.
The company said political pressures and inflation impacted its African business while rise in service tax and TRAI norms impacted its Q1 performance. Bharti sees possibility of further EBITDA margin dilution. EBITDA margin, which went down by 310 basis points QoQ to 30.2 per cent, was way below the estimates of around 33.4 per cent.
ICICI Bank toppled Bharti Airtel to become the country's 10th most valued firm in terms of market capitalisation, pushing the telecom major out of the top-10 list following a sharp fall in its share price.
On the other side, utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra surged 4 per cent after the company reported beats forecast, net up 20 per cent to Rs 726 crore.
Index heavyweight Reliance Industries cut gains to 0.9 per cent from 2 per cent on profit booking. FMCG majors ITC and HUL were up 0.33 per cent and 1.2 per cent, respectively.
Top commercial vehicle maker Tata Motors too trimmed gains to 0.5 per cent from 2.7 per cent, which was the gainer for third consecutive session.
Metals stocks were strong in trade; Hindalco Industries rose over 2 per cent while JSPL and Sterlite Industries gained more than 1 per cent.
Country's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank was down 1.6 per cent while its rival HDFC Bank fell 0.4 per cent.
Software services exporter TCS dropped over 1 per cent whereas its rival Infosys gained more than 1 per cent.
Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro was down 0.7 per cent and state-owned GAIL tanked nearly 3 per cent.
Indiabulls Financial Services, Indiabulls Power and Indiabulls Real Estate fell 1-3 per cent after foreign research firm Veritas advised selling all Indiabulls group stocks.
GVK Power tanked 5 per cent after reporting losses in the first quarter due to higher interest cost. Lanco Infratech and IVRCL tumbled 4-5 per cent. Punj Lloyd went down 3.6 per cent as its consolidated net loss increased to Rs 13.4 crore in Q1 from loss of Rs 12.2 crore YoY.
State-run State Trading Corporation of India and Hindustan Copper rallied 13-15 per cent after reports that the Finance Minister looked to revive share sale in PSUs. Neyveli Lignite and RCF gained 3-4 per cent.
V-Guard Industries rallied 5.5 per cent and the stock doubled in the year itself. Geometric surged nearly 6 per cent. Sun TV and IRB Infra gained 2 per cent each.
Decliners outnumbered advancers by 1606 to 1188 on the BSE. The broader markets closed marginally lower.
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