A benchmark index of Indian equities markets Thursday ended flat -- down 16.01 points or 0.08 percent -- in its sixth fall in seven trading sessions.
The markets were cautious ahead of the wholesale and retail inflation data due to be released next week, as well as the US job data.
Heavy selling pressure was observed in capital goods, banks and automobile stocks, while metal, oil and gas, information technology (IT) companies gained.
The 30-scrip S&P Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 20,755.73 points, closed at 20,713.37 points, down 16.01 points or 0.08 percent from its previous day's close at 20,729.38 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 20,778.13 points and a low of 20,652.69 points intra-day.
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The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed trade 6.25 points or 0.10 percent up at 6,168.35 points.
In Thursday's trade, the S&P BSE metal index was up 101.33 points followed by oil and gas index which gained 64.25 points and IT index which moved up by 42.85 points.
However, capital goods index was down by 197.91 points, bank index was lower by 93.74 points and automobile index lost 69.06 points.
The major Sensex gainers were: Sesa Sterlite, up 4.57 percent at Rs.200.35; NTPC, up 3.20 percent at Rs.133.70; ONGC, up 2.62 percent at Rs.280.30; Coal India, up 2.41 percent at Rs.295.70; and DrReddys Lab, up 2.21 percent at Rs.2,587.95.
The main losers were: Larsen and Toubro (L&T), down 2.68 percent at Rs.971.60; Axis Bank, down 2.30 percent at Rs.1,184.95; Hindalco Inds, down 2.21 percent at Rs.112.80; Mahindra and Mahindra, down 1.52 percent at Rs.893.50; and Maruti Suzuki, down 1.43 percent at Rs.1812.80.
Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei closed 1.50 percent down and Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.91 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index went down by 0.82 percent.
In Europe, London's FTSE 100 was trading 0.19 percent down. However, Germany's DAX Index was higher by 0.34 percent and the French CAC 40 Index had edged up by 0.08 percent.