Nifty ends flat, slips 21 pts on selling pressure

The Nifty had hit record highs in intra-day trade.

Globally, European stocks edged higher supported by upbeat earnings from US tech giants and the prospect of continuing stimulus in Europe.

Asian stocks rose following gains in US equities as earnings and congressional action on tax reform boosted confidence in the growth outlook.

The NSE Nifty opened higher at 10,362.30 and touched a intra-day fresh high of 10,366.15 before ending at 10,323.05, down 20.75 points, or 0.20 per cent from its last close.

It saw an intra-day movement of about 54.85 points.

On the sectoral front, PSU banks dropped 4.21 per cent, energy 1.32 per cent, infra 0.92 per cent, bank 0.73 per cent, realty 0.51 per cent, IT 0.19 per cent and metal 0.17 per cent.

However, pharma rose by 2.35 per cent, media 1.49 per cent, auto 0.94 per cent, FMCG 0.66 per cent and financial service 0.22 per cent.

Major index gainers were Adani Ports, Bajaj Finance, ONGC, Sun Pharma and Tata Motors.

Losers included InfraTel, Yes Bank, HindPetro, BhartiAirtel and IOC.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was in favour of gainers. On the NSE, 906 stocks advanced, 835 declined and 71 remained unchanged.

Total securities that hit their price bands were 139.

Turnover in the cash segment fell to Rs 36,941.62 crore from Rs 52,070.09 crore yesterday.

A total of 17,420.17 lakh shares changed hands in 11,801,990 trades. The market capitalisation of listed firms on NSE stood at Rs 1,40,91,949 crore.