Trading began on a weak note amid cautiousness, tracking overnight developments in the global markets after a series of rate cut decisions by the Central banks in Europe and China.
World equity markets were unimpressed by the fresh round of economic stimulus measures and reacted negatively. Though the rate cut was along expected lines, investors were largely disappointed over not mentioning of any additional long-term refinancing operations (LTRO).
The range-bound market extended losses and fell below the important 5,300 level in early deals on profit-taking in technology, oil&energy, metal, capital goods and auto scrips.
The key index rebounded from intra-day lows in late afternoon trade, helped by FMCG, bank and pharma counters, but failed to sustain gains and concluded with marginal loss.
The rupee's continuous slide despite Government efforts and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia's comment that achieving average growth rate of 9 per cent in the next five years is not possible, too, weighted on overall trading sentiment.
The 50-share Nifty hovered between a high of 5,327.20 and low of 5287.75 before settling at 5,316.95, a modest fall of 10.35 points, or 0.19 per cent, over the last close.
Jindal Steel, Sesa Goa, Maruti, Asian Paint, Sterlite, DLF, Tata Power, Infosys and Hero MotoCorp were the top losers from the Nifty bunch. ICICI Bank, M&M, HUL, HDFC, Cipla, TCS, ITC, Coal India, BPCL and Dr Reddy's ended with gains.
The turnover in cash segment declined to Rs 9,782.83 crore against Rs 10,008.71 crore yesterday. In all, 7,379.04 lakh shares changed hands in 52,90,587 trades. Market capitalisation stood at Rs 61,12,104 crore.
