Indian Shares Give Up Early Gains Amid Fed Concerns

(RTTNews) - Indian shares gave up early gains to end on a flat note on Thursday, as persistent geopolitical tensions in the Middel East and Russia along with a widening controversy surrounding Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang prompted traders to book profits at higher levels after recent strong gains.

Oil prices were largely unchanged today after a senior Iranian official rejected one of Washinton's key conditions for peace talks, stating that the country would not surrender "a single atom" of its enriched material.

Mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran's parliament speaker and top negotiator, has told AI Jazeera that Tehran is waiting for an official U.S. response to its seven conditions for ending war and that the Strait of Hormuz will "never return" to its status prior to the U.S.-Israel war on Iran.

Elsewhere, Russia's military said that it had carried out a massive overnight strike on military factories across Ukraine, causing explosions.

Rising yields and a stronger dollar in international markets, which climbed to a 19-month high on expectations of further tightening by the Federal Reserve, also kept markets under pressure.

According to the CME FedWatch Tool, markets are fully pricing in a 25-bps Federal Reserve rate hike next month, with the probability of a larger 50-basis-point move currently standing at 11 percent.

The 30-share BSE Sensex gave up all early gains to end little changed at 81,911.01, while the NSE Nifty index inched up by 44.30 points, or 0.18 percent, to 25,299.35.

The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indexes rose 0.7 percent and 1 percent, respectively.

The market breadth was strong on the BSE, with 2,533 shares rising while 1,916 shares fell and 238 shares closed unchanged.

Among the top gainers, ICICI Bank, Bajaj FinServ, BEL, SBI and Bajaj Finance rose 1-3 percent.

Among those that fell, Hindustan Unilever led losses to close almost 3 percent lower as regulatory scrutiny intensifies over misleading food product claims.

Tata Steel, UltraTech Cement, Larsen & Toubro, NTPC, HCL Technologies, Titan Company, Mahindra & Mahindra, TCS, Power Grid Corp and Maruti Suzuki India dropped 1-2 percent.