The S&P BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50 indexes staged a sharp recovery in last hour of trade to close on a flat note led by gains in metal heavyweights like Vedanta, Reliance Industries and Hindustan Unilever. However, weakness in banking stocks capped the up move. For most part of the day, benchmarks traded on a weak note as the government's economic package failed to impress investors already worried about rising coronavirus cases and poor corporate earnings reports.
The Sensex ended 0.08 per cent or 25 points lower at 31,097.73 and the NSE Nifty 50 index fell 0.06 per cent or 6 points lower at 9,136.85.
The Nine of 11 sector gauges compiled by the National Stock Exchange ended lower led by the Nifty PSU Bank index's 1.6 per cent fall. Nifty Bank, Auto, Media, Private Bank and Pharma sector gauges also fell around a per cent each.
On the other hand, Nifty Metal index was top gainer, up 1.6 per cent.
Mid- and small-cap shares closed in-line with their larger peers as Nifty Midcap 100 index fell 0.2 per cent while Nifty Smallcap 100 index ended little changed.
Vedanta was top Nifty gainer, the stock rose 4 per cent to close at Rs 93. Bharti Airtel, Bharat Petroleum, Bharti Airtel, Hindalco, Tata Steel, NTPC, Reliance Industries, Asia Paints, Tata Motors, Grasim Industries and Hindustan Unilever were also among the gainers.
On the flipside, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharti Infratel, Axis Bank, UPL, Zee Entertainment, Hero MotoCorp, IndusInd Bank and ICICI Bank were also among the laggards.
The overall market breadth was neutral as 1,176 stocks were trading lower while 1,007 were among the gainers.
