The markets had another lackluster day. The Sensex moved in a narrow range of 130 points before ending absolutely flat at 17164, lower by one points and the Nifty closed at 5128, down eight points.
There was weakness in the broader markets, though. The mid-cap and small-cap indices ended nearly 1% lower at 6651 and 8362 respectively and the market breadth was distinctly weak with the declines outnumbering the advances in the ratio of 2:1.
Meanwhile, India's wholesale price index rose 9.89% in February from a year earlier, driven by firm food prices. The numbers were roughly on expected lines, according to the chief economic adviser in the Finance Ministry, Kaushik Basu.
The top losers on the Sensex were M&M (weakened by 2.7% at Rs 1105), Reliance Infra (shed 2.3% at Rs 974) and Sun Pharma (lost 1.7% at Rs 1626). ACC, HDFC Bank and SBI were the other notable losers.
On the other hand, Wipro strengthened by 2.7% at Rs 727, Hindustan Unilever rose 2.6% at Rs 225 on bargain hunting at lower levels and Jaiprakash Associates hardened by 2.3% at Rs 148. And index heavyweight, RIL inched up by 0.6% at Rs 1027.
Infosys topped the value charts on the BSE with a total turnover of Rs 71.98 crore. This was followed by RIL (Rs 65.67 crore), Tata Steel (Rs 60.93 crore), Tata Motors (Rs 51.68 crore) and SBI (Rs 45.60 crore).
Jaiprakash Associates led the volume charts with trades of 2.10 million. It was followed by Hindalco (1.57 million), DLF (1.26 million), Bharti Airtel (1.15 million) and Hindustan Unilever (1.04 million).
