New Delhi, India (BBN)-The BSE benchmark Sensex ended Monday’s rangebound session on a flat note.

The 50-share Nifty ended below its crucial psychological level of 8,450 as gains in blue-chip stocks such as Reliance Industries, Maruti Suzuki and Larsen & Toubro were offset by losses in Sun Pharma, Tata Motors, Bharti AIrtel and ONGC, reports NDTV.

For the most part of the day, the Sensex and Nifty traded in a rangebound fashion.

The Sensex touched high of 27,959 and low of 27,737 and the Nifty traded in a thin range of 62 points.

Meanwhile, analysts polled by Reuters expect the Reserve Bank of India to cut interest rates by 25 basis points tomorrow at its bi-monthly monetary policy review.

Banking stocks came under selling pressure as analysts said that the traders were seen squaring off positions in banking stocks ahead of the key event.

The Bank Nifty closed 0.6 per cent lower.

Pharma stocks also came under selling pressure after India’s largest pharma company Sun Pharma reported net profit of Rs 888 crore for the January-March quarter, while analysts on average had forecast a profit of Rs 1,609 crore.

In the same quarter a year earlier, Sun Pharma posted a profit of Rs 1,587 crore.

On the other hand, buying was visible in capital goods, oil & gas and FMCG stocks.

From the Nifty-50 basket of stocks, 30 stocks advanced while 20 stocks declined.

Sun Pharma was the top Nifty loser. The stock fell 9 per cent to close at Rs 878. HCL Technologies, Bharti Airtel, Lupin, Tata Motors, ONGC, Bosch, HDFC Bank, Axis Bank, Zee Entertainment, Tech Mahindra, ICICI Bank and State Bank of India were also among the laggards.

On the other hand, Larsen & Toubro was the top Nifty gainer, the stock advanced nearly 3 per cent to Rs 1,702 after the company reported better than expected net profit of Rs 1,702 crore.

Maruti Suzuki shares jumped 2.8 per cent to Rs 902 after its May sales rose 13.8 per cent year-on-year to 1,14,825 units.

Reliance Industries, Hindustan Uniliver, Tata Power, Cipla, Bank of Baroda, NTPC, ITC, Cairn India, Infosys, BPCL and Bajaj Auto were also among the gainers.

 

The broader markets ended on a flat note with a negative bias. The BSE mid-cap and small-cap indices closed 0.03 per cent lower.

The Sensex finally closed 20 points higher at 27,849 and the Nifty ended 0.25 point lower at 8,433.