Twenty eight out of 50 Nifty stocks closed in the negative zone.
Domestic stock markets finished Wednesday's range-bound session on a flat note as investors remained on the sidelines ahead of multiple macro pointers this week including the interim budget on Friday and China-US trade talks.
The SP BSE Sensex ended 1.25 points lower, at 35,591.25 while, NSE's benchmark index Nifty closed at 10,651.80, down 0.40 points from the previous close.
The Sensex moved in a range of 35,850.41-35,490.97 during the session, whereas the Nifty fell as much as 10,612.85.
The index touched a high of 10,710.20.
Here are 10 things to know about Wednesday's trading session:Twenty eight out of 50 Nifty stocks closed in the negative zone.Top laggards on the Nifty were Indiabulls Housing Finance, Adani Ports, Bajaj Auto, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Bharti Infratel, settling between 2.49and 4.81 per cent lower.Settling between 2.81 and 6.21, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, Axis Bank, Hindalco and HCL Tech were the major advancers on the Nifty.Sector wise, the NSE FMCG, realty and pharma indices settled up to 0.99 per cent lower while metal and banking stocks closed by up to 1.9 per cent.Dewan Housing Finance Corp, which slumped nearly 10 per cent following reports of an alleged financial misappropriation by its controlling shareholders, closed 5.48 percent lower on the NSE.According to Saurabh Jain, assistant vice-president (research), SMC Global Securities, the problems related to DHFL is purely company-based and that can be see that in its stock and bond performance.
"There is no domino effect at the moment in other sectors," he said.Shares of Housing Development Finance Corp Ltd (HDFC) closed 2.26 per cent lower on NSE after posting a 60 per cent plunge in net profit.However, the losses were curbed by strong gains in private-sector lenders Axis Bank Ltd and ICICI Bank Ltd, which closed up 4.58percent and 6.21 percent, respectively on the NSE.ICICI Bank is scheduled to report its quarterly results later in the day.According to Viral Berawala, CIO, Essel Mutual Fund, markets were slightly negative with private banks supporting the market after an excellent December quarterly results with reduced NPA's and high growth.
"Metal stocks rallied on back of expected iron ore supply cuts," he added.On a net basis, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net of Rs 354.36 crore Tuesday, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs) were net buyers to the tune of Rs 81.27 crore, provisional data available with BSE showed.(With inputs from agencies)