Markets ended steady in a choppy session today with the Sensex falling below the 27,000-mark after marking its new 7-month high in intra-day trade following profit-booking in recent outperformers, even as both indices recorded gains for the second straight week.
Cautious stance adopted by participants ahead of next week's RBI monetary policy too influenced trading sentiment, brokers said.
Caution also prevailed ahead of all important US non-farm Pay Roll data due later in the day as gains in jobs could prompt the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates this month itself.
Earlier in the day, the market ruled firm and even marked its new seven-month high of 27,008.14 on bullish global cues and upbeat domestic sentiment on account of sustained FII inflows, strong macro-economic data and above normal monsoon forecast.
For the week, the BSE Sensex rose 189.43 points, or 0.71 per cent, and the NSE Nifty moved up 64.15 points, or 0.78 per cent.
The 30-share barometer opened higher at 26,919.23 and advanced to recapture the 27,000-mark to touch a high of 27,008.14 in early deals.
However, due to emergence of profit-booking in recent gainers by cautious investors at existing levels, the Sensex slipped into negative zone to hit a low of 26,792.07 before settling marginally lower by 0.11 point, at 26,843.03, still at its highest level since October 28 last year.
The index had gained around 175.18 points in the previous two sessions.
The 50-share Nifty after shuttling between 8,262.00 and 8,209.85, finally closed at 8,220.80, still showing a marginal gain of 1.85 points, or 0.02 per cent.
The release of weak Service PMI also ruled the stock-momentum as Nikkei Service Business Activity index fell from 53.7 in April to 51.0 in May, pointing slower expansion in business activity.
Bharti Airtel took the biggest blow, plunging 2.12 per cent to Rs 358.20, followed by SBI (2.02 per cent) at Rs 196.50.
Lupin, BHEL, GAIL, L&T, Hero MotoCorp, Sun Pharma, Cipla, ITC Ltd, HDFC Ltd, TCS, Tata Steel, Dr Reddy's, ONGC, HDFC Bank and Adani Ports lost too by up to 1.82 per cent.
Of the 30-pack Sensex, 16 ended with losses, but 14 ended in the green, thus limiting the fall.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) purchased shares
worth a net Rs 521.85 crore yesterday, as per provisional data.
Shares of FMCG major Hindustan Unilever surged 1.86 per cent to Rs 884.90 after the company said it will split its Foods and Refreshment (F&R) business into two separate units in line with its global category structure.
In terms of sectoral show, the BSE consumer durables index got much hammering, down 1.75 per cent, followed by realty 1.14 per cent, capital goods 0.90 per cent, healthcare 0.73 per cent and PSU 0.09 per cent.
Broader markets too slipped in sympathy, with small-cap index falling 0.42 per cent and mid-cap 0.11 per cent.
Shares of mining giant NMDC today climbed 4.45 per cent to end at Rs 90.30 after the company scheduled a board meeting next week to consider a proposal to buyback company's shares.
Shares of companies related to agriculture such as Monsanto India and Insecticides were up by 0.95 per cent to Rs 2,432.35 and 0.43 per cent to Rs 431.85 on forecast of a better monsoon, raising revival in rural demand.
Globally, most of other Asian markets ended higher with Hong Kong's Hang Seng rising 0.42 per cent and Japan's Nikkei gaining 0.48 per cent. Shanghai Composite Index ended 0.46 per cent. European sharess were higher in their early trade.
