A day after it gained around 200 points, a benchmark index of Indian equities markets, the 30-scrip BSE Sensitive Index (Sensex), closed marginally lower. It ended the day's trade down by 28 points or 0.10 percent down on Thursday.
The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) closed the day's trade marginally in the red. It ended the day's trade 2.25 points or 0.03 percent down at 8,421 points.
The Sensex of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 27,885.36 points, closed the day's trade at 27,809.35 points -- down 27.86 points or 0.10 percent from the previous day's close at 27,837.21 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 27,911.44 points and a low of 27,712.73 points in the intra-day trade.
According to Angel Broking, Indian markets opened on a flat note, tracking the SGX Nifty.
On the global front, the US indices ended Wednesday's trade marginally lower, after the US Fed meeting minutes expectedly indicated that the rate hike is unlikely in June.
"European markets extended gaining streak for the third consecutive day (Wednesday), led by rally in telecommunication and banking shares. Indian markets edged higher (Wednesday), led by rally in the IT stocks due to decline in rupee vis-a-vis the dollar," the broking firm said.
Market analysts tracking the day's trade said that the markets slipped into negative territory on back of profit booking ahead of corporate earnings number of ITC and the State Bank of India.
Metal stocks were down on Chinese factory PMI (Purchasing Managers' Index), which shrank for the third straight month in May.
"While moving higher on rate cut hopes, market would remain cautious on Q4 results of Index majors this week," said Vinod Nair, head of fundamental research with Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.
"Continuous participation from domestic institutional investors could provide some support to the market. But trend on foreign institutional investors inflows could depend on global factors, lately the trend has been positive," Nair added.
Healthy buying was observed in automobile, capital goods, healthcare, information technology (IT) and realty sectors.
However, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), oil and gas, metal, bank and power stocks came under heavy selling pressure.
The S&P BSE automobile index zoomed by 150.90 points, capital goods index augmented by 86.98 points, healthcare index rose by 39.77 points, IT index was higher by 29.02 points, and realty index was up by 14.83 points.
However, the S&P BSE FMCG index plunged by 59.85 points, oil and gas index receded by 43.48 points, metal index was lower by 39.16 points, bank index fell by 31.54 points, and power index was down by 12.58 points.
The major Sensex gainers on Thursday were: Bajaj Auto, up 6.94 percent at Rs.2,299.75; Coal India, up 3.51 percent at Rs.372.70; Axis Bank, up 2.19 percent at Rs.570.85; Sun Pharma, up 1.52 percent at Rs.980.80; and Larsen and Toubro, up 1.50 percent at Rs.1,637.80.
The losers were: Tata Steel, down 5.11 percent at Rs.342.90; Vedanta, down 3.29 percent at Rs.208.85; Cipla, down 1.98 percent at Rs.674.40; ICICI Bank, down 1.68 percent at Rs.313.40; and ITC, down 1.53 percent at Rs.327.35.
Among the Asian markets, Japan's Nikkei was marginally higher by 0.03 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index moved up by 1.89 percent. However, Hong Kong's Hang Seng was lower by 0.22 percent.
In Europe, London's FTSE 100 slipped by 0.02 percent. France's CAC 40 was lower by 0.38 percent and Germany's DAX Index lost 0.49 percent at the closing in the Indian markets.
