Sensex falls marginally on profit selling

MUMBAI: The benchmark Sensex fell by 37 points on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Wednesday profit selling by funds in heavy-weight stocks.

The Sensex, which opened the day with a gain of 118 points, fell later in the day to end with a loss of 37.41 points on profit selling in stocks of capital goods, bank and Information technologies. It touched intra-day higher of 15,661.44 and a low of 15,486.81 points.

The wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty ended flat at 4,496.85, down by 0.20 point, after touching the day's high of 4,531.50 and a low of 4,490.40 points.

While all the sectoral indices closed in negative zone, a steep rise in metal and realty sectors saved the market from any major fall. Metal segment index shot up by 146.06 points at 11,918.28 and realty index by 110.55 points at 7,642.34.

Oil and gas index rose by 60.44 points at 8,321.15, consumer durable index by 36.82 points at 4,594.71 and auto index by 8.65 points at 4,875.78.

The major losers were bank index by 58.30 points at 7,979.77, followed by capital goods index by 50.08 points at 13,664.18. IT index lost 26.58 points at 4,443.98, PSU index by 44.92 points at 7,323.60 and teck index by 13.94 points at 3,540.77.