Higher tax payments by corporates saw the Sensex smartly recovering early losses of 105 points.In choppy trading, the index shuttled between a high of 17195.49 and a low of 17061.14. The broad-based 50-share Nifty of the National Stock Exchange ended at 5128.90 against 5137.
“The market moved in a limited range and was in the red practically for the entire day. Small and mid cap companies had severe selling pressure compared to larger peers.
Mahindra & Mahindra dropped by 2.7 per cent to Rs. 1,105.35, whereas India's largest lender SBI declined 1.45 per cent to Rs. 2,015.90. However, the Large IT stocks were in demand with Wipro, HCL Tech, TCS and Infosys gaining ground.
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The wholesale price-based (WPI) inflation shot up by 1.34 percentage points to 9.89 per cent in February over previous month, driven mainly by rising prices of essential food items and the hike in excise duty on fuel announced in the budget.
Among sectoral indices, IT, and FMCG ended in the positive zone with gains up to 1.37 per cent, while PSU, banking and capital goods stocks ended in the negative zone. Other sectors to record losses include real estate, paper and auto stocks.
Among IT stocks, Wipro rose by 2.71 per cent to Rs. 727.75, Infosys by 1.07 per cent to Rs. 2,701.20, TCS by 2.27 per cent to Rs. 814.80 and HCL Technology by 2.70 per cent to Rs. 369.35.
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According to marketmen, the consolidation phase is likely to continue in the market.
Asian stocks ended weak. Key indices from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan closed in the red. European markets were trading feeble in early deals. — PTI