After a weak performance through the day the markets recovered sharply to close in the green on Friday with the benchmark Sensex ended at 21,810 up 35 points or 0.16 per cent on the back of support from capital goods, realty and healthcare sector. The Nifty too closed at 6,504 up 11 points or 0.17 per cent.
On the BSE, except IT, tech, consumer durables and banking index all sectoral indices closed in the green led by capital goods sector which rallied the highest by 1.85 per cent from its previous close on Friday.
Alex Mathews, Head Research, Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services said: "On weak global cues, the Indian markets today opened in negative zone and remained in a tight range as the investors were waiting for the inflation data. But in the second half the markets recovered smartly on better than expected inflation data."
The WPI inflation data fell to a nine month low of 4.68 per cent in February on the moderate food prices as against 5.05 per cent in the previous month. The food inflation dropped to 8.12 per cent in February as compared to 8.8 per cent in the previous month.
The retail inflation which came out earlier in the week also fell to a 25 month low in February.
"Now market focus is shifted to mainly on RBI’s monetary policy on April 01, 2014. Also the covering of short positions on the back of holiday on Monday supported the markets," added Mathews.
Volatility was down with the India VIX index closing at 16.4, down 2.21 per cent.
DLF, JP Associates, BHEL, NMDC and L&T were the top five Nifty gainers while Ranbaxy, HCL Tech, Wipro, Axis Bank and Airtel were the top laggards.