Sensex up 21 points; profit booking erases most of day's gains

"Positive global cues and buying in rate-sensitive stocks boosted the market sentiment," said Nidhi Saraswat, Senior Research Analyst at Bonanza Portfolio Ltd.
The 50-share CNX Nifty on the National Stock Exchange edged up 10.25 points or 0.16 per cent to 6,284.50. The SX40 on the MCX Stock Exchange closed 33.67 points up at 12,559.21.
Ten of the 12 BSE sectoral indices advanced, with the recently battered realty, metal and capital goods segments leading the pack, while IT and teck stocks suffered the most on profit selling after a strong bull run in past few days.
The Small Cap and Mid Cap indices outperformed the Sensex with gains of 1.2 per cent and 1.26 per cent, respectively, indicating the return of retail investors.

Foreign institutional investors continued their buying spree with net stock purchases of Rs 990.19 crore last Friday, according to provisional data with the stock exchanges.
Infosys, the top loser on the Sensex, fell 2.35 per cent after V Balakrishnan became the eighth top executive to quit the company in the past six months.
Stocks also fell ahead of the expiry of derivative contracts on Thursday.
RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan today said fighting rising prices will continue to be the central bank's priority and a call on raising interest rates will be taken after factoring in more data.