Nifty snaps 7-day fall, up 8 pts to end at 5,641.60

In a see-saw but narrow range of trade, the CNX Nifty of the National Stock Exchange today cut its 7-session of long losing string to end in positive terrain --- up by nearly 8 points--- at 5,641.60 on buying in FMCG, finance, MNC, service and IT counters.
However, realty, energy, commodities, PSU bank, metal and infra shares attracted profit-booking.
Operators and retail investors preferred to keep away from taking any major position following uncertain political situation after DMK last week withdrew support of UPA government and this week SP signalled to withdraw support, indicating an early election, brokers said.
The broad-based 50-issue CNX Nifty moved erratically in a narrow range of 5,655.30 and 5,612.05 before closing at 5,641.60, a net rise of 7.75 points or 0.14 per cent. In the last

seven trading sessions, it had tumbled by 275.10 points or 4.66 per cent.
Marketmen attributed narrow range of trade to alternate bouts of buying and selling ahead of the expiry of March series on coming Thursday. The NSE will remain closed tomorrow (March 27) on the occasion of 'Holi'.

Asian stocks closed mixed, while European markets were trading better in their early trade.
Top five gainers from Nifty were Bharti Airtel 2.88 per cent, HUL 2.47 per cent, HDFC 2.23 per cent, Ranbaxy 2.20 per cent and Tata Motors 1.87 per cent while top five losers were REL Infra 6.10 per cent, Siemens 4.93 per cent, GAIL India 3.20 per cent, RIL 3.20 per cent and Hero MotoCorp 2.83 per cent.

Turnover in the cash segment dropped further to Rs 8,747.76 crore from Rs 10,105.91 crore yesterday. A total of 5,615.78 lakh shares changed hands in 50,58,085 trades. Market capitalisation stood at Rs 61,70,215 crore.