Nifty erases early gains, ends 21 points down

Mumbai: The market erased most of its early gains during fag-end profit-booking Wednesday as the benchmark Nifty ended down by 20.50 points to conclude at 8,040.20 at the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Earlier, the key index opened higher and remained in positive terrain for most part of the session amid firm Asian cues and data by Nikkei business PMI index showing India's services sector touching eight-month highs on growing businesses.

Indices also got a boost from Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's comments on gradual reduction of corporate tax to 25 percent.

But the gains could not be sustained as investors turned cautious on muted earning numbers in some blue-chips as well as due to higher-level profit booking in shares during fag-end trade.

Selling was witnessed in key pharma, banking, IT and energy counters, while auto, FMCG and PSU banks saw good buying activity.

The broader midcap index also found some buying interest, while smallcap witnessed selling.

The 50-shares index saw gap-up opening at 8,104.90 and traded between 8,116.10 and 8,027.30 before ending at 8,040.20, showing a loss of 20.50 points or 0.25 percent.

Elsewhere, Asian shares ended higher on China's unveiling new proposals on market friendly reforms. European stocks also saw higher opening.

Stockwise, major losers were Tech Mahindra (2.49 percent), Bosch Ltd (2.11 percent), GAIL (2.10 percent), SunPharma (1.85 percent), RIL (1.64 percent) and Asian Paint (1.47 percent).

Notable gainers were Tata Motors (5.97 percent), Hero MotoCorp (1.48 percent), Coal India (1.41 percent) and SBI (1.29 percent).

Turnover in cash segment eased to Rs 14,578.01 crore from Rs 14,992.71 crore yesterday. A total of 7,405.01 lakh shares changed hands in 67,32,551 trades and the market capitalisation of NSE stood at Rs 96,67,762 crore.