BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian shares were little changed in a special session conducted on Saturday for stock exchanges to test a failsafe system for equity trading.
Indian equities traded in two special sessions from 9:15 a.m. to 10 a.m. (0345-0430 GMT) from a primary site, and then from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (0600-0700 GMT) from a so-called disaster recovery site as exchanges tested how their systems would respond in the case of unexpected events.
India's markets regulator had scrutinised the stock exchanges - NSE and BSE, after a major trading outage in Feb. 24, 2021 due to a technical glitch, when the bourses failed to migrate to the disaster recovery site.
A similar special trading session was earlier held on March 2, 2024
The benchmark NSE Nifty 50 settled 0.16% higher at 22,502, while the S&P BSE Sensex added 0.12% to 74,005.94. Both the benchmarks traded in a narrow range.
"Markets are taking a cautious stance and the situation may remain challenging till national election results are out on June 4," said Ajit Mishra, vice president of research at Religare Broking.
Metals gained 0.53%, helped by top consumer China's steps to support its ailing property sector.
The broader, more domestically focused small- and mid-caps rose 0.82% and 0.51% respectively, outperforming the blue chips.
Among individual stocks, Nestle India added 2.23% and was the top Nifty 50 gainer. The consumer company's shareholders rejected a proposal to increase royalty payments to its Swiss parent Nestle.
Drug maker Zydus Lifesciences climbed 5% after beating March quarter profit estimates on strong U.S. demand and powered the pharma index 0.67% higher.
JSW Steel shed 1.81% and was the top Nifty 50 loser after posting a drop in fourth-quarter profit.
Indian markets will be closed for a holiday on Monday. Trading will resume on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran and Hritam Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
By Bharath Rajeswaran and Hritam Mukherjee
