Broadly negative global markets, coupled with an outflow of foreign funds, dragged the Indian equities markets to close on a flat-to-negative note on Friday.
Besides, a washout winter session of Parliament due to political logjam on the demonetisation issue compelled the key indices to close the day's trade marginally in the red.
The wider 51-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) inched down by 14.15 points or 0.17 per cent at 8,139.45 points.
The barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 26,548.67 points, closed at 26,489.56 points -- down 29.51 points or 0.11 per cent from the previous close at 26,519.07 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 26,594.55 points and a low of 26,455.21 points during the intra-day trade.
The BSE market breadth was tilted in favour of the bears -- with 1,486 declines and 1,122 advances.
On Thursday, the equity markets were subdued by negative global indices, coupled with rupee depreciation and outflow of foreign funds.
The barometer index was down 83.77 points or 0.31 per cent, while the NSE Nifty inched down by 28.85 points or 0.35 per cent.
"The domestic market opened in green zone in the morning but couldn't sustain longer and entered into the red zone. Nifty got stuck in a trading range on the back of hawkish tone of the US Federal Reserve," SMC Global Securities said in a commentary to IANS.
"Market participants looked more puzzled due to the ongoing demonetisation drive and its possible heavy impact on corporate performances. In the coming days too it is expected that market will continue to become range bound."
However, the Indian rupee strengthened by seven paise to 67.77 against a US dollar from its previous close of 67.84 to a greenback.
"Indian rupee opened with a positive note on local bourses and witnessed some see-saw moves in today's session following global cues," the stock brokerage firm added.
"However, it managed to end the day with marginal gains as some profit booking at higher levels was seen after falling sharply in yesterday's session against the dollar."
In terms of investments, provisional data with exchanges showed that the foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold stocks worth Rs 90.36 crore, whereas the domestic institutional investors (DIIs) purchased scrip worth Rs 30.48 crore.
According to Dhruv Desai, Director and Chief Operating Officer of Tradebulls, stocks in banking, pharma, auto, oil-gas, textile and media-entertainment sectors traded with bearish sentiments throughout the session.
"Aviation stocks witnessed firm sentiments due to short covering from traders, whereas FMCG, cement and power stocks traded with bearish sentiments," Desai said.
"Nifty got some support at lower levels tracking sideways price movement of USD/INR futures."
Sector-wise, the S&P BSE metal index plunged by 167.52 points, followed by the banking index by 115.24 points, and the oil and gas index by 111.57 points.
On the other hand, the S&P BSE automobile index rose by 90.81 points, the consumer durables index gained 67.78 points, and the IT index inched rose by 55.96 points.
Major Sensex gainers on Friday were: Tata Motors, up 1.95 per cent at Rs 472.50; Cipla, up 1.32 per cent at Rs 569; Infosys, up 1.10 per cent at Rs 1,004.20; Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), up 0.98 per cent at Rs 2,281.75; and Maruti Suzuki, up 0.62 per cent at Rs 5,183.75.
Major Sensex losers were: Bharti Airtel, down 2.67 per cent at Rs 309.95; ONGC, down 2.30 per cent at Rs 201.70; ICICI Bank, down 1.82 per cent at Rs 255.60; Adani Ports, down 1.56 per cent at Rs 280.10; and ITC, down 1.41 per cent at Rs 226.55.
--IANS
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