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Sensex Ends Flat Ahead of Rail Budget, F&O Expiry
25 Feb 2015, 04:08 PM IST 
The BSE benchmark Sensex which rallied as much as 266 points in trades on Wednesday gave up all its gains on caution ahead of Rail Budget and February F&O expiry which is due tomorrow.
The 50-share Nifty closed below its crucial psychological level of 8,800 led by selling pressure in hevyweight stocks like ICICI Bank, Larsen & Toubro, HUL and HDFC Bank.
Analysts said that traders resorted to profit-booking in the last one hour of trade on caution ahead of Rail Budget and F&O expiry which are the two main events lined up for tomorrow.
Cyclicals such as banking, capital goods, auto and consumer durable stocks came under sharp selling pressure on the back of profit-booking. At the same time, defensive pockets such as IT and FMCG stocks witnessed buying in anticipation of high volatility in trades tomorrow.
Mid-cap and small-cap stocks also succumbed to the profit booking. The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices ended on a weak note.
From the Nifty basket, Dr Reddy's Labs was the top loser. The stock slipped 2.3 per cent to Rs 3,282. Sun Pharma, Tata Power, BHEL, Larsen & Toubro, HDFC Bank, TCS, HUL, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahundra Bank and State Bank of India also ended on a weak note.
Meanwhile, ACC, HDFC, Bharti Airtel, Infosys, ITC, Coal India and ONGC were among the prominent gainers on the Nifty.
Most of the railway stocks came under selling pressure a day ahead of of Suresh Prabhu's first Budget announcement on Thursday.
Titagarh Wagons closed 6.2 per cent lower at Rs. 580.25, while electronic safety equipment supplier Kernex Microsystems shed 5 per cent to close at Rs. 46.75.
Hind Rectifiers ended 4.9 per cent lower, while Simplex Casting closed 1.5 per cent lower. State-run BEML and Texmaco also closed lower.
Among other individual stocks, shares of Steel Strips Wheels rose as much as 9 per cent to Rs 359 in trades on Wednesday after the company reported that it has received new export order from Renault Brazil.
Shares of ABG Shipyard jumped 15 per cent to Rs 232 in trades on Wednesday after a news report suggested that the Mahindra group is in talks to acquire a large stake in the ship maker.
The Mahindra group has reportedly initiated talks with the company to acquire large strategic stake in the naval ship maker.
The Sensex finally closed 3 points higher at 29,008 and the broader Nifty advanced 5 points to close at 8,767.