Sensex ends 31 points up; rupee near record low

Mumbai: The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty closed flat on Monday after shedding all gains in late trade due to sharp fall in rupee and erasing somewhat gains by European markets. SBI, Reliance Industries, L&T and ICICI Bank helped market closed marginally higher while the fall in ITC, Infosys, HDFC Bank and ONGC limited the upside.

The BSE benchmark shed more than 100 points from day's high of 16,298, before closing at 16,183.26, up 30.51 points or 0.19 per cent over previous close. The NSE benchmark managed to close above the 4900 level; it gained 14.60 points at 4,906.05.

Ambareesh Baliga, COO of Way2Wealth said the market could not see a rally unless the rupee slips below 50.51 a dollar. According to him, eyes have to be on to what sort of action the government takes post the parliament session ends.

The Indian rupee was moving towards all-time low of 54.89 a dollar. It depreciated by 43 paise or 0.78 per cent to 54.85 a dollar, at the time of closing of Indian equities.

European markets too came off day's high amid endless worries over Greece. Investors remained wary over the euro zone despite world leaders pledging calling for Greece to stay in the monetary union and for Europe to balance austerity with growth.

Back home, country's largest lender State Bank of India rallied 3.4 per cent, continuing Friday's upmove further due to better than expected numbers for the fourth quarter of FY12. The stock had gained 5 per cent on Friday. Private sector lender ICICI Bank rose 0.7 per cent while rival HDFC Bank fell 0.6 per cent.

Engineering and construction major by sales Larsen & Toubro jumped 2.35 per cent, and state-owned capital goods company BHEL went up 2.5 per cent.

Reliance Industries, India's most valued stock and oil & gas producer moved up 1 per cent whereas rival state-owned ONGC was down 0.74 per cent.

Private power producers Tata Power and Reliance Infrastructure gained 4-4.5 per cent whereas public sector unit NTPC lost 1 per cent.

Shares of Maruti Suzuki, Sun Pharma, Coal India and Hindalco Industries rallied 2-3 per cent.

However, FMCG majors ITC and HUL extended fall in late trade, losing 2 per cent and 1 per cent, respectively.

Software services exporters Infosys and Wipro dropped around 2 per cent while rival TCS was down just 0.2 per cent.