Markets ended a volatile session on a flat note, with a negative bias, amid profit taking in IT major Infosys post its first quarter earnings last week. Also, investor sentiments were dampened after foreign institutional investors sold Indian shares worth 7.23 billion rupees ($120.60 million) on Friday.
Meanwhile, the wholesale price index-based inflation fell to a four-month low of 5.43% in June against 6.01% in the previous month as the rate of food price rise declined and ironically onions turned cheaper.
However, this may not dissuade RBI from maintaining a status quo on its policy rates next month since sub-normal monsoon threatened to result in a drought in parts of the country and geo-political crisis in west Asia.
For the day, the Sensex was down 17 points at 25,007 and the Nifty gave off five points to settle at 7,454.
In the broader markets, the smallcap index was down 0.5% while the midcap index was marginally in red.
Sectors & Stocks
BSE Consumer Durables index was the top sectoral loser down 2% followed by IT, FMCG, Healthcare and Realty indices, down 0.4-1%.
Jewellery shares were among the top losers in the consumer durables space with Titan, PC Jeweller and Rajesh Exports down 2-4%.
Infosys was the top Sensex loser down 3% after rising 2.7% last week; post its first quarter earnings. Wipro down 2% was the other major loser from the IT space.
FMCG shares which had risen last week also witnessed profit taking today. ITC was down 0.3% after rising 3.8% last week while Hindustan Unilever dipped 3% after gaining over 2.6% last week.
Other Sensex losers include, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Cipla, Coal India, NTPC and Bharti AIrtel among others.
Capital Goods, Metal and Auto indices up 1% each were the top sectoral gainers.
Metal shares were among the top gainers with Hindalco up 4.5% and Tata Steel rose over 3%.
TCS, Tata Power, Tata Motors, L&T, Axis Bank, ONGC and BHEL, all up 1.5-3% were the notable gainers.
Among other shares, Advani Hotels and Resorts (India) has hit the upper circuit of 20% at Rs 51.60 on the BSE on reports that ITC Hotels could be close to buying its property in Goa.
Unichem Laboratories dipped 4.5% to Rs 187 after reporting 16% year on year drop in standalone net profit at Rs 30.20 crore for the quarter ended June 30, 2014 (Q1), due higher expenditure and lower other income.
The pharmaceutical company had profit of Rs 36.10 crore in the same quarter year ago.
Sanofi India dipped 10% to Rs 2,927 on NSE after the drug pricing regulator, National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) bought anti-diabetic and cardiac medicines under price control.
Global Markets
Stock markets in Europe and Asia rose on Monday as investors put aside concern about euro zone banks and looked forward to corporate earnings and a raft of global economic events, including testimony from the head of the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Europe's biggest markets gained more than 0.5% and Portugal rallied by 1%, after worries about a Portuguese bank last week caused the first sign this year of a return of nerves over Europe's southern half.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.4%, with Seoul gaining 0.3%. Japan's Nikkei bounced 0.9% after several sessions of losses.
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