After a volatile run through the day, equity benchmarks closed flat on Friday, owing to profit-booking and heavy sell-off pressure.
The benchmark BSE Sensex closed at 24,217, down 17 points or 0.07 per cent. The Nifty settled at 7,230 mark, down 6 points or 0.08 per cent.
On the BSE, except consumer durables, oil and gas and banking sector, all sectoral indices closed in the green led by realty and healthcare indices which closed higher by 2 per cent and 2.55 per cent respectively.
Shrikant Chouhan, Head-Technical Research, Kotak Securities, said: “On Friday, the market remained neutral to weak on the back of profit taking in frontline stocks that have participated heavily in the run up after the announcement of the elections results. Defensive stocks did well like FMCG, IT and few pharmaceutical stocks.We are expecting surprises from the credit policy on the positive side even though the consensus is close to unchanged."
HUL, NPTC, M&M, Sun Pharma and Tata Power were among the top five gainers in the Nifty. Bank of Baroda, BPCL, SBI, PowerGrid and IndusInd Bank were among the top 5 losers in the Nifty.
The INDIA VIX was down 2.13 per cent to close at 16.3.