Domestic equities snapped a two-day winning run and ended marginally lower after trading mostly in a narrow band as the benchmark Nifty lost 7 points to settle at 7,849.25 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) here.
Trading got off to a lackluster start with investor mood remaining cautious ahead of the futures and options (F&O) expiry and the upcoming winter session of Parliament this week amid hopeful of an early passage of key reform measures including the GST cleared in Rajya Sabha.
After recovering from the initial fall, key benchmark gradually moved back to trade in positive zone briefly on good low level buying support. It swung between significant gains and losses through out the day owing to lack of directional cues and also tracking movements in the Asian and European markets before ending with modest losses.
Overseas investors have pulled out more than USD 1 billion from the Indian capital markets since the beginning of the month on the back of recent disappointing quarterly earnings in the midst of an impending Fed rate hike.
Meanwhile, preparing the ground for gradual reduction of corporate tax to 25 per cent from 30 per cent, the Finance Ministry on last Friday proposed a roadmap for ending various tax exemptions currently enjoyed by the industry.
The 50-share Nifty opened lower at 7,869.50 and moved between a high of 7,877.50 and a low of 7,825.20 before settling at 7,849.25, showing a marginal loss of 7.30 points, or 0.09 per cent.
Among the sectoral indices, metal index fell the most by 1.61 per cent, followed by FMCG 1.39 per cent and PSU Bank by 0.35 per cent.
However, good buying was seen in auto, energy, infra, tech and pharma counters even the broader markets outperformed the frontline stocks.
Major losers included ITC, HDFC, HDFC Bank, HUL, Sun Pharma, ONGC, TCS, Hindalco, Tata Steel, Vedanta and BPCL.
Key gainers were Adani Ports, Reliance, Idea, Zee, Asian Paints, Hero MotoCorp, Dr Reddy's, Lupin and Baja Auto.
Energy stocks were in sharp focus once again after the Qatar-based RasGas agreed to waive USD 1 billion penalty on India for breaking a long-term LNG contract against the back drop of sliding global energy rates.
Turnover in cash segment dropped to Rs 14,461.86 crore from Rs 17,019.69 crore last Friday. A total of 7,353.82 lakh shares changed hands in 66,49,215 trades. The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 95,84,358 crore.
