Nifty closes flat in choppy trade, holds 7900-mark

Equities gave up early gains and finished virtually flat on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) today amid cautiousness ahead of expiry of December series derivative contracts.
The benchmark CNX Nifty fluctuated between a high of 7,942.15 and a low of 7,902.75 before ending at 7,928.95, showing a small gain of 3.80 points, or 0.05 per cent.
It's been a day of consolidation for the market as traders were catching their breath after overnight blockbuster rally, although news based buying activity and stocks specific actions largely dominated trade.
Despite a better start, key indices eventually relinquished its gains to trade in red during the afternoon session due to bouts of profit-taking.

However, healthy fag-end buying in select heavyweights and fundamentally strong stocks helped the benchmark to regain its lost ground and end in positive terrain with modest gains.
Elsewhere, most Asian equities finished higher following a solid rebound in Chinese market even as trading volume remained thin due to low investors participation.

Among the sectoral front, media, auto, energy, pharma, bank and infra counters witnessed sustained buying interest along side mid-cap and small-cap stocks.
However, realty, FMCG, IT and metal saw good amount of profit-taking.
Notable index stock gainers included HDFC, Reliance, M&M, Bajaj Auto, Axis Bank, Zee, Bosch, Bharti Artel, ICICI Bank, Adani Ports, Grasim, Idea, Heromoto and Ambuja Cement.

However, ITC, HCL-Tech, HUL, Tata Motors, L&T, TCS, Dr Reddys', Power Grid and SBI were among the key Nifty losers.
Turnover in cash segment surged to Rs 14,483.75 crore from Rs 14,251.41 crore yesterday. A total of 8,653.98 lakh shares changed hands in 64,45,994 trades.
The market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 97,96,842 crore.