By IANS
Mumbai : Developing mild jitters on the eve of the union budget, Indian equity markets Thursday ended flat with mixed signals coming from global peers.
There was heavy selling in realty, oil and gas, banking and consumer durables scrips.
The 30-share sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) opened at 17,810.52 points and notched a high of 17,921.51 before closing at 17,824.48 points. It lost 1.51 points or 0.01 percent at the day’s close.
The S&P CNX Nifty index on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), which opened at 5,266.35 points, closed at 5,285.10 points after touching the day’s high at 5,302.85 points.
At close, it registered a gain of 16.70 points or 0.32 percent.
The BSE Midcap index, which closed at 7,711.76 points, went down 11.80 points or 0.15 percent.
Similarly, the BSE Smallcap index, which closed at 9,668.13 points, went down 5.73 points or 0.06 percent.
On BSE, the market breadth was negative with low trading volumes. A total of 1,276 shares advanced, 1,444 shares declined and 64 shares remained unchanged.
Other Asian markets gave out mixed signals with Japan’s Nikkei closing in the red while South Korea’s Kospi, Taiwan’s bellwether index and US’ Nasdaq and Dow Jones closed in the green.
The top gainers of the day at BSE included Hindalco at Rs.203.85, up 4.03 percent, Bajaj Auto at Rs.2,255.00, up 3.61 percent, HDFC at Rs.2,775.35, up 3.39 percent and Mahindra and Mahindra at Rs.680.15, up 3.26 percent.
The top losers of the day at BSE were DLF at Rs.805.35, down 2.37 percent, State Bank of India at Rs.2,038.70, down 2.11 percent, Reliance Industries at Rs.2,536.70, down 1.97 percent and Reliance Energy at Rs.1,600.70, down 1.88 percent.