Indian Shares End Off Day's Highs

(RTTNews) - Indian shares pared early gains to end marginally higher on Wednesday as escalating Middle East tensions raised concerns that the United States and Iran may return to an all-out war.

Markets opened on a positive note and sustained positive momentum during afternoon session after U.S. President Donald Trump backed away from his plan to impose a 20 percent charge on cargo shipments through the Strait of Hormuz and softer-than-expected U.S. inflation data curbed bets for a near-term rate hike by the Federal Reserve.

Higher levels couldn't be sustained as Trump ramped up threats against Iran, telling Fox News the U.S. could target Iran's power plants and bridges next week if Tehran doesn't' return to the negotiating table.

After the U.S. reinstated a blockade over the Strait of Hormuz, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has threatened to close "all other export corridors that benefit the U.S. and its allies".

The benchmark 30-share BSE Sensex hit an intraday high of 77,646.27 before erasing most early gains to end the session up 130.49 points, or 0.17 percent, at 77,185.43. The broader NSE Nifty index settled 26.45 points, or 0.11 percent, higher at 24,078.50, after having touched a high of 24,220.35 earlier.

The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indexes surged 0.6 percent and 0.7 percent, respectively.

The market breadth was strong on the BSE, with 2,306 shares rising while 1,970 shares fell and 166 shares closed unchanged.

Among the top performers, Asian Paints, Indigo, Tech Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, SBI, UltraTech Cement and Eternal rallied 1-3 percent.