The Indian equity benchmarks ended Tuesday's volatile session marginally lower as gains in IT heavyweights like Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra and index bellwether Reliance Industries and hotel major ITC were offset with losses in banking and financial services shares like ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, HDFC and State Bank of India.
The markets opened higher and Nifty touched an intraday high of 17,175 however profit booking at higher levels pushed the Nifty to trade in the narrow range. Weakness in Bank Nifty was greater than that in Nifty and that pushed Nifty 50 index lower, analysts said.
Meanwhile, subdues action in global markets and volatility owing monthly expiry of derivative contracts also added to cautious sentiment among traders, they added.
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Nine of 15 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the Nifty Metal index's 0.9 per cent fall. Nifty Bank, Auto, Financial Services and Private Bank indices also fell between 0.4-1 per cent.
On the other hand, Pharma, IT, FMCG, Healthcare and Oil & Gas indexes ended higher.
Mid- and small-cap shares also gave up gains to end largely on a flat note as Nifty Midcap 100 and Nifty Smallcap 100 indices advanced 0.2 per cent each.
Hero MotoCorp was top Nifty loser, the stock fell nearly 3 per cent to Rs 2,643. Adani Ports, Titan, Tata Steel, SBI Life, JSW Steel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Auto, State Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Tech Mahindra also fell between 0.8-2 per cent.
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On the flipside, Cipla, Tata Consumer Products, Shree Cements, Power Grid, IndusInd Bank, Bharat Petroleum, Grasim Industries and Eicher Motors were among the gainers.
The overall market breadth turned neutral by closing as 1,868 shares ended higher while 1,539 closed lower on the BSE.
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