Mumbai, Feb 1 (Inditop.com) A benchmark index for Indian equities Monday closed flat, having made up for early losses in the second half of the day even as selling by foreign institutional investors acted as an overall drag on the markets.
The 30-scrip sensitive index (Sensex) of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 16,339.32 points, ended flat at 16,356.03 points.
At the National Stock Exchange (NSE), the broader 50-share S&P CNX Nifty closed at 4,899.7 points, against the previous close at 4,882.05 points, a gain of 0.36 percent or 17.65 points.
Broader markets did better, with the BSE midcap index closing 1.81 percent up and the BSE small cap index shutting shop 2.72 percent higher.
Consumer durables, healthcare and auto scrips saw buying interest, while FMCG stocks came under selling pressure.
Foreign institutional investors have been net sellers since the last eight trading days and had pulled out over $1.7 billion from the equities markets till Friday.
The market breadth was positive, with 2,165 stocks advancing against 702 scrips declining and 42 remaining unchanged.
Among gainers on the Sensex were Tata Motors, up 3.56 percent at Rs.719.05; Wipro, up 3.13 percent at Rs.667.65; Grasim Industries, up 3.1 percent at Rs.2,674.45; and M&M, up 2.7 percent at Rs.1,046.90.
Top losers included Hindustan Unilever, down 2.87 percent at Rs.237.10; SBI, down 1.79 percent at Rs.2,021.10; HDFC Bank, down 1.57 percent at Rs.1,605.30, and ITC, down 1.54 percent at Rs.246.40.
Other major Asian markets closed mixed, with the benchmark Japanese index, Nikkei, ending marginally higher at 10,205.02 points and the Korean Kospi 0.25 percent up at 1,606.44 points.
The Hang Seng of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange ended 0.61 percent higher at 20,243.75 points.
The Chinese Shanghai composite index, however, closed in the red at 2,941.36 points, 1.6 percent down.
European markets were ruling on a mixed note.
At the closing bell here, FTSE 100, the benchmark index of the London Stock Exchange, was ruling 0.28 percent higher at 5,203.07 points, while the French CAC 40 index was down 0.23 percent at 3,730.69 points. Its German peer DAX was also ruling 0.02 percent lower at 5,607.87 points.
