MUMBAI: Outflow of foreign funds, along with profit booking ahead of derivatives expiry and broadly negative global indices, subdued the Indian equity markets on Wednesday.
The key indices lost their earlier gains and provisionally closed on a flat note, as heavy selling pressure was witnessed in stocks of oil and gas, capital goods and energy.
The wider 51-scrip Nifty of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) inched up by 2.00 points or 0.02 per cent to 8,034.85 points.
On the contrary, the barometer 30-scrip Sensitive Index (Sensex) of the BSE, which opened at 26,243.19 points, provisionally closed at 26,210.68 points (at 3.30 p.m.) -- down 2.76 points or 0.01 per cent from the previous day's close at 26,213.44 points.
The Sensex touched a high of 26,415.05 points and a low of 26,191.75 points during the intra-day trade.
In contrast, the BSE market breadth was tilted in favour of the bulls -- with 1,526 advances and 1,091 declines.
On Tuesday, both the Sensex and the Nifty reclaimed their psychologically important marks of 26,000 points and 8,000 points respectively.
The barometer index was up 406.34 points or 1.57 per cent at 26,213.44 points, and the NSE Nifty surged by 124.60 points or 1.58 per cent to close at 8,032.85 points.