Mumbai: Nifty is flat after earlier rising as much as 0.1 per cent to match a record high at 6,591.50 hit on Monday, while the benchmark Sensex falls 0.1 per cent.
Shares of oil and gas producers slump after the country's election commission asked the government to defer a planned hike in gas prices due to start on April 1.
Reliance Industries fell by 2.6 per cent, while state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp is down 2.5 per cent. Lenders including HDFC Bank extended a recent rally on the back of strong foreign investor flows.
HDFC Bank is up 1.2 per cent ,after earlier marking its record high at 760 rupees. The State Bank of India gains 0.8 per cent.
Overseas investors bought shares worth 14.65 billion rupees and 10.56 billion rupees worth of index futures on Monday, when shares hit a record high, provisional exchange data shows.
Foreign investors have been particularly heavy buyers during the recent rally, with net purchases of $2.27 billion of shares in March.
