Market ended almost flat in a listless trade today but the NSE benchmark CNX Nifty hovered near its all-time closing high amidst buying in select stocks as the bourses awaited outcome of RBI's policy meet next week.
Profit booking amid choppiness prevented broader gain ahead of the RBI's monetary policy review meet on January 28.
The 50-share index hit an intra-day high 6,355.60, a few points away from its all-time closing peak of 6,363.90 posted on December 9, 2013.
L&T rallied 2.80 per cent after the infra giant reported 22.44 per cent rise in net profit for the December quarter yesterday. Auto major M&M fell 5.65 per cent on rate hike concerns.
Pharma and FMCG stocks saw good buying interest, but profit booking in auto, energy, IT and metal counters and also in shares of small and mid-cap companies capped gains.
Meanwhile, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) bought shares worth a net Rs 279.45 crore yesterday, as per provisional data from the stock exchanges.
The Nifty traded between a high of 6,355.60 and a low of 6,316.40 before closing at 6,345.65, up 6.70 points, or 0.11 per cent, over the previous close.
Major gainers were L&T, Jindal Steel, Axis Bank, Sun Pharma, Gail, UltraTech, HDFC, Bharti Airtel, Cairn and Infy. Key losers were M&M, HCL Tech, ONGC, PNB, Coal India, Tata Steel, ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda and NTPC.
Turnover in the cash segment declined to Rs 10,406.51 crore from Rs 10,777.57 crore yesterday. A total of 5,094.99 lakh shares changed hands in 54,13,522 trades, while market capitalisation stood at Rs 68,31,364 crore.
