Indian shares end flat

Indian shares closed flat on Wednesday as the embattled telecom sector gave up gains after the government did not consider relief measures, while firmer financials offset weakness in IT stocks.

The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index (.NSEI) closed down 0.05 per cent at 17,353.50 and the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) settled 0.05 per cent lower at 58,250.26.

The indexes had declined as much as 0.6 per cent as the cabinet's decision disappointed some investors that were expecting support measures for the cash-strapped sector.

Reversing from early gains, Bharti Airtel Ltd (BRTI.NS) and Vodafone Idea Ltd (VODA.NS) slipped 0.4 per cent and 2.4 per cent, respectively. Reliance Industries (RELI.NS), the owner of telecom operator Reliance Jio Infocomm, fell 0.4 per cent to snap five sessions of gains.

The market was being weighed down by profit-taking, but banks limited losses, said Neeraj Dewan, director at Quantum Securities.

Nifty's bank index (.NSEBANK) and finance index (.NIFTYFIN) settled up 0.82 per cent and 0.57 per cent, respectively.

The Nifty IT index (.NIFTYIT) settled down 0.78 per cent, with Wipro (WIPR.NS) leading losses to close down 1.8 per cent.

Agro chemicals maker BASF India (BASF.NS) dropped 2.1 per cent. India's antitrust watchdog on Wednesday raided local offices of several vegetable seed companies, including that of BASF India.