The NSE Nifty pared its initial gains to close marginally down by 1.30 points due to profit booking in key banks and financials counters.
The last day of the financial year 2014-15 saw the market extending overnight gains in choppy momentum, as bouts of value-buying amid tinge of shortcovering took the index to intra-day high of the crucial 8,550-level before succumbing to profit booking.
The broad-based 50-share Nifty opened modestly higher at 8,527.60 and traded between 8,550.45 and 8,454.15 before finishing at 8,491.00, showing a marginal loss of 1.30 points, or 0.02 per cent.
Profit-booking was witnessed Banking and financials, PSU banks, IT, though, FMCG, infra and metal counters ended marginally negative.
Broader, Midcap and smallcap stocks outperformed indices and good buying was witnessed in Pharma and Auto counters, while, energy segment gained after brokerage firm upgraded Reliance Industries (RIL) stocks to overweight from underweight.
Stockwise, ONGC fell by 2.81 per cent, PNB 2.79 per cent, UltracemCo 2.25 per cent, Tata Steel 1.75 per cent, Hindalco 1.64 per cent, HDFC bank 1.37 per cent, L&T 0.53 per cent and ITC 0.52 per cent.
Notable gainers were BPCL 5.39 per cent, Tata Power 3.70 per cent, GAIL 2.04 per cent, Tata Motors 1.89 per cent, Reliance 1.88 per cent, SunPharma 1.30 per cent and Cipla 1.46 per cent.
Turnover in the cash segment climbed to Rs 17,526.53 crore against Rs 14,148.38 crore. A total of 9,062.04 lakh shares changed hands in 81,46,488 trades. The market capitalisation at NSE stood at Rs 99,30,122 crore.
Elsewhere, Asian markets ended mixed after Chinese let loose new policy moves on unstable property market.
Meanwhile, Foreign Portfolio Investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs 240.34 crore yesterday as per provisional data.
