MUMBAI: The Indian markets on Monday traded in the negative territory and ended flat as Sensex closed 170 points down at 61,624.15 while Nifty50 ended 20 points down at 18,329.15.
Most of the Asian markets were dragging during the Friday session as most investors continued to remain cautious of rate hikes across the world.
Among the broad-based indices, BSE MidCap went up 0.05 per cent to 25,478.90 whereas BSE LargeCap declined 0.08 per cent to 7,119.27. BSE SmallCap rose 0.25 per cent to 29,056.34 with Mannappuram, Force Motors, RVNL, Fortis and Kirloskar Brothers among the most active stocks.
Friday's session saw a rally in both the main exchanges -- BSE and National Stock Exchange -- as the markets tracked Asian markets and US stocks. S&P BSE Sensex went up more than 1,000 points at the start of the session and was up 992 points to 61,609 at 10.30 am whereas Nifty50 was up 283 points to 18,311.95.
In global markets, the dollar had steep losses after a smaller-than-expected increase in US consumer prices fuelled hopes that the Federal Reserve could tone down its aggressive pace of interest rate hikes.
Among the sector-based indices, Metal jumped 1.7 per cent with IT and Realty indices also ending with decent gains. FMCG shed more than one per cent in Friday's session whereas Media lost more than 2 per cent during today's session.
The government also declared its retail inflation on Monday which was in single digits after posting double digits for 18 consecutive months.
When most of the Asian markets closed in the red, European shares moved higher. STOXX 600 index was trading up in the morning session after recording its biggest weekly gain in nearly eight months on Friday.
Japan's Nikkei index closed lower from a two-month high as investors booked profits. The Nikkei share average ended 1.06 per cent lower.