Nifty dips 21.95 points, holds on to 11,000-level ahead of the Union Budget

NSE benchmark Nifty declined for the second straight session as caution crept in ahead of the Union Budget.

The index fell 21.95 points but settled above the key 11,000-level in volatile trade due to selling mainly in pharma, FMCG, metal and IT counters.

However, fag-end buying in banking, energy and finance service stocks helped the index trim some of the losses.

Overseas, European stocks were trading higher as investors monitored corporate earnings. Most Asian stocks closed lower despite earlier shrugging off the declines seen on Wall Street overnight.

The Nifty 50 index fell 21.95 points or 0.2 percent to end at 11,027.70, its lowest closing since January 22.

It hovered in a range of 11,058.50 and 10,979.30.

It saw an intra-day movement of about 79.20 points.

The broader markets fell for the fifth consecutive session, with Nifty Midcap and Smallcap indices slipping by 1.50 per cent and 1.19 per cent, respectively.

On the sectoral front, Pharma fell 1.87 per cent, FMCG 1.40 per cent, Metal 1.22 per cent, IT 0.93 per cent, PSU Bank 0.56 per cent, Infra 0.45 per cent and Media 0.29 per cent.

On the other hand, Private Bank rose 0.52 per cent, Energy 0.59 per cent, Finance Service 0.48 per cent and Bank 0.40 per cent.

Major index gainers were Bharti InfraTel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Tech Mahindra, BPCL, HPCL, Reliance, Tata Motors, HDFC and IndusInd Bank.

Losers were Dr Reddy's, Tata Steel, UPL, HUL, Cipla, Lupin, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Sun Pharma, Infosys and Coal India.

The market breadth, indicating its overall health, was in favour of the losers. On the NSE, 635 stocks advanced, 1,165 declined and 70 remained unchanged.

Total securities that hit their price bands were 202.

Turnover in the cash segment rose to Rs 37,714.83 crore from Rs 34,631.47 crore as on Tuesday.

A total of 16,063.94 lakh shares changed hands in 12,880,450 trades. The market capitalisation of listed firms on NSE stood at Rs 1,51,40,452.62 crore.