Sensex erases early gains to end almost flat

The benchmark Sensex today frittered away most of its early gains on profit-taking in bluechips, including RIL and ONGC, to end with a mere 14-point rise.
After losing 93 points in the previous session, the BSE index Sensex shot up by 130 points at the outset before reducing gains to end 13.66 points higher, or 0.06 per cent, at 21,753.75. From last Friday, the index lost 56.05 points even though it hit lifetime high of 22,040.72 on March 18.
Brokers said the market remained volatile as cautious investors and foreign fund managers were seen adjusting their portfolios before the ending of current fiscal year.

"After the initial uptick, the benchmark indices were remained lacklustre for the ninth successive trade. However, considerable buying in metal and realty space alongside with rise in cash counters kept market breadth on advancing side," said Jayant Manglik, President-retail distribution, Religare Securities.
In 30-share Sensex, 19 stocks gained while 11 settled with losses. Reliance Industries dropped 2.20 per cent on reports of drop in production at its eastern offshore project.
ONGC fell over 2.6 per cent, Sun Pharma by 1.7 per cent and Bharti Airtel by about one per cent.

The 50-share NSE index Nifty rose 10.10 points, or 0.16 per cent, to end at 6,493.20, after touching high of 6,522.90.

Axis Bank, which tumbled three per cent intra-day, ended 2.69 per cent higher after the government sold 9 per cent stake through block deal trades.
Metal stocks rose on value buying while State Bank of India was up 1.47 per cent on hopes of gaining weight in FTSE index series, market participants said.
The domestic market sentiment was positive on a firming trend in the Asian region and higher opening in Europe as global investors steadied after Federal Reserve's signal on hiking interest rates.
Sectorally, the BSE Metal sector index gained the most by rising 1.93 per cent, followed by Realty index (1.86 per cent), Consumer Durable index (0.70 per cent) and Power index (0.67 per cent).