Nifty fails to hold 8350, Sensex flat; Midcap loses, Lupin up

The market closed flat with a positive bias on Thursday after its consolidation, shrugging off the rally in European peers and oil prices. Pharma, FMCG and HDFC Group stocks saw buying interest while technology, auto and oil stocks fell.
Equity benchmarks gained strength in afternoon trade with the Sensex rising over 100 points and Nifty reclaiming 8350 level intraday, especially on strong Europe but could not sustain those gains for long.

 The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 34.62 points at 27201.49 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 1.95 points to 8337.90 while the BSE Midcap declined 0.4 % despite positive market breadth. About 1550 shares advanced against 1210 advancing shares on Bombay Stock Exchange.

European stocks rallied after a sell-off earlier this week, buoyed by positive sentiment in the US post dovish minutes from the US Federal Reserve's June meeting and a tentative rise in oil prices. France's CAC, Germany's DAX and Britain's FTSE were trading 1-1.5 % higher (at 16 hours IST). Brent and US crude oil futures were up 1 % each. Asia ended mixed with Hang Seng rising 1%.