Sensex ends flat; IT stocks fall (Roundup)

A day after rallying 729 points up on the back of a surprise lending rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India, a benchmark index of Indian equities markets closed Friday's trade flat on the back of largely negative global cues.

Healthy buying was observed in healthcare, capital goods and consumer durables stocks, while information technology (IT), technology, entertainment and media (TECK) and banking sectors came under selling pressure.

The 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the S&P Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), which opened at 28,056.61 points, closed the day's trade at 28,121.89 points, up 46.34 points or 0.17 percent from the previous day's close at 28,075.55 points.

The Sensex touched a high of 28,176.10 points and a low of 27,945.31 points in the intra-day trade.

"Market has taken a break after the surprise rally yesterday led by rate cut. Market has returned to weigh in global factors where currency and commodities have shown higher movement," said Vinod Nair, head, fundamental research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services.

The S&P BSE healthcare index surged by 206.70 points, capital goods index gained by 197.27 and consumer durables index got augmented by 192.47 points.

However, IT index was down by 26.70 points, followed by TECK index which was lower by 4.50 points and bank index which slipped 1.81 points.

The wider 50-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) also closed the day's trade flat. It was up only 19.65 points or 0.23 percent at 8,513.80 points.

The major Sensex gainers were: Sun Pharma, up 2.88 percent at Rs.850.75; Coal India, up 2.55 percent at Rs.377.90; Hindustan Unilever, up 2.28 percent at Rs.942.45, Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), up 2.10 percent at Rs.1,303.85 and BHEL, up 2.05 percent at Rs.274.05.

The losers were: Hindalco Inds, down 2.40 percent at Rs.138.45, Bharti Airtel, down 1.89 percent at Rs.342.55, Hero MotoCorp, down 1.81 percent at Rs.2,896.85, State Bank of India (SBI), down 1.39 percent at Rs.315.60 and Tata Motors, down 1.29 percent at Rs.525.60.