Mumbai: Extending its losing streak for third consecutive session, the NSE Nifty declined marginally by 11.50 points to end at 9,139.30, weighed down by continued geo-political tensions and dismal revenue guidance by Infosys.
The market opened on lower note and witnessed choppy as well as negative range-bound momentum, while it tried to recover for brief period in late morning, but dropped again to move in range and ended the day with mild losses.
The NSE 50-share index opened lower at 9,144.75 and hovered in a range of 9,160.00 and 9,120.25 before ending at 9,139.30, showing a loss of 11.50 points, or 0.13 per cent. It witnessed an intra-day movement of 39.75 points.
Meanwhile, the inflation based on wholesale price index (WPI) dropped to 5.70 per cent (provisional) for March 2017. Overseas, Asian markets ended mixed as the crisis in Russia and Syria and heightened tensions between the US and North Korea hurt investor sentiment.
While, European markets were closed today for Easter Monday. On the sectoral front, Metal fell by 1.08 per cent, Pharma 0.79 per cent, IT 0.63 per cent, PSU Bank 0.38 per cent, FMCG 0.20 per cent, and Auto 0.18 per cent.
However, only Realty outperformed key indices by gaining 8.03 per cent, while Energy rose 0.74 per cent. The broader midcap and smallcap also gained 0.51 per cent and 0.58 per cent, respectively.
Major index losers were NTPC (3.25 per cent), Infratel (3.01 per cent), SunPharma (2.27 per cent), Bosch Ltd (1.98 per cent) and TechM (1.86 per cent). Gainers included GAIL (3.90 per cent), IBull HSGF (2.12 per cent), Grasim (2.05 per cent), Reliance (1.98 per cent) and PowerGrid (1.15 per cent) A total of 864 shares declined, 842 advanced, while 90 ruled steady.
Total securities that hit their price bands were 150. Turnover in the cash segment rose to Rs 22,544.32 crore from Rs 22,325.98 crore last Thursday. A total of 14,190.03 lakh shares changed hands in 7,825,826 trades. The market capitalisation of listed of firms stood at Rs 12,111,948 crore.
