Sensex erases early gains on profit-booking, weak global cues
The Sensex closed 25 points lower at 15,857 points. 50 stock Nifty ended the day at 4749 points , up around 30 points.
Sensex erased initial gains and ended lower by nearly 26 points as investors adopted cautious approach ahead of third quarter corporate results that commence next week and booked profits amid weak overseas trend.
The gauge touched the day's high of 15,980.17 and a low of 15,809.31.
However, the 50-scrip NSE index Nifty moved 0.30 point to 4,749.95, after moving between 4,779.80 and 4,730.15.
Stocks of Bajaj Auto and Hero MotoCorp closed over 2 per cent higher.
Of 30 stocks on the Sensex, 17 stocks closed lower with DLF over 4 per cent.
Brokers said investors remained cautious ahead of corporate result seasons for the third quarter, 2011-12, starting next week with Infosys.
They said investors remain concerned about slowdown in economic growth, even as food inflation turned negative at minus 3.36 per cent for the week ended December 24.
Concerns over the euro-zone debt crisis affected trading sentiment.
The two most heaviest stocks on the Sensex, with 20 per cent weight - Reliance Industries fell 2.34 per cent and Infosys, 0.54 per cent.
Rajesh Jain EVP retail research at Religare Securities said markets are in a consolidating mode. He sees markets to consolidate in the near future. He sees a rally once Nifty closes above 4800.
The oil and gas sector index suffered the most -- 1.68 per cent at 7,608.11, followed by realty index - 1.65 per cent at 1,400.80. Metal index fell 0.74 per cent to 9,813.50 and IT index was down 0.42 per cent at 5,899.98.
Asian markets ended mixed, while the euro continued to be pressured by the dollar and yen.
Hang Seng rose 0.46 per cent. Kospi fell o.13 per cent lower while Nikkei closed 0.83 per cent lower.
European markets were trading in the red. CAC 40 was down around 1.20 per cent while FTSE lost 0.80 per cent.
DAX was trading 0.73 per cent lower.